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Jose Pimentel in court last year.Photo: James Messerschmidt
A madman who plotted to detonate pipe bombs to massacre US soldiers, NYPD cops, Jews and recruiting stations faces 16 years behind bars after pleading guilty to a terrorism charge Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Jose Pimentel, 29, cut a plea deal that avoided a possible sentence of life in the slammer had he been convicted at trial, which was slated to begin Feb. 24.
Pimental pleaded guilty to first-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism.
“Now I’m going to impose a sentence of 16 years and five years probation,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber said after Pimental – aka “Muhammad Yousuf” – entered his plea.
Farber then read the accused’s admission to the charge.
“In November of 2011 I along with a man named Abdul, who I now know is a confidential informant, attempted to make and possess and explosive device, namely a pipe bomb here in New York City. I used an article, ‘How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom’ ” that he got from “Inspire” magazine, an online jihadist publication, Farber said.
If Pimentel were convicted of the top charge, criminal possession of a weapon as a crime of terrorism, he could have faced 15 years to life.
Prosecutor Deborah Hickey said the defendant was also plotting to build two other pipe bombs.
“At that trial, the people would have offered proof that at the time of his capture, the defendant completed building the explosive device, and was in the process of building two others,” Hickey said.
She said he was targeting military personnel, US soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan, recruiting stations, New York City police officers, Jews and the civilian population.
Defense lawyer Lori Cohen contended that the pipe bomb wasn’t completed and that her client had been entrapped by informants who tried to ply him with marijuana and heroin.
“All of the actions set forth by Miss Hickey occurred in the apartment of the confidential informant, who gave him a place to live … and gave him money to help support him. So the facts of the case would have shown many things,” Cohen said.
The Muslim convert was caught building a nail-filled pipe bomb with parts from Home Depot and Target stores
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