HEMET, Calif. (AP) - A California appeals court has refused to overturn the conviction of a man who repeatedly tried to kill a Hemet police officer, likening his zany efforts to those of Wile E. Coyote.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise (https://bit.ly/1g1UtSR ) says an appellate panel on Monday upheld the 2011 conviction of Nicholas Smit.
Smit received four consecutive life sentences for trying to kill a police detective who was scheduled to testify in his drug trial.
Prosecutors say Smit left nail and gun booby-traps outside the detective’s home and car, rerouted a natural gas line into a police office, set a zip gun to fire at the gate of a gang task force, set several fires and tried to fire a World War II-era rocket at the police station - but it fizzled.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.