Federal prosecutors say they won’t retry a California Institute of Technology graduate student on arson charges for helping firebomb dozens of SUVs in the San Gabriel Valley.
Monday’s decision in Los Angeles doesn’t affect the sentence for William Cottrell. In September, an appeals court overturned his 2004 conviction on seven counts of arson but he’s still convicted of conspiracy and is serving 100 months in prison.
A federal judge could decide Monday whether he will serve the remainder of that sentence or release him.
Cottrell also was ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution.
In 2003, authorities say Cottrell and two other people who remain at large burned or vandalized more than 130 SUVs in an environmental protest.
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