Spokane man, 21, guilty in bombing

OKLAHOMA CITY – 21-year-old Spokane man was convicted Tuesday in the April 2004 firebombing of a Jewish temple in Oklahoma City.

A federal jury found Sean Gillespie, 21, guilty of three bombing charges for hurling a Molotov cocktail at Temple B’Nai Israel on April 1, 2004.

Prosecutors showed jurors two videotapes, one from a surveillance camera at the temple that showed a person attacking the synagogue with a fire bomb.

Prosecutors said the other videotape was found in Gillespie’s truck and showed him plotting his attack.

In that tape, Gillespie said, “I’m going to firebomb (the temple) with a Molotov cocktail. I will film it for your viewing enjoyment, my kindred. White power.”

Ann Dee Lee, who attends the synagogue, said she was pleased with the verdict.

Formal sentencing for Gillespie will be in about three months.

He faces a maximum 30 years in prison and $250,000 fine.

“This kind of religious violence is so fundamentally un-American that, as a society, we simply cannot tolerate it,” said U.S. Attorney Robert McCampbell.

Gillespie was arrested on April 16, 2004, in Russellville, Ark., by FBI agents and Arkansas law enforcement officers.

According to an FBI affidavit, an informant had told agents that Gillespie had been living in Coeur d’Alene, and had recently gone to the Russellville area after firebombing a Jewish synagogue in Oklahoma City.