Violin teacher convicted of 2 arson charges in firebombing

A former Olympia resident was convicted Thursday of two arson charges for her role in the 2001 firebombing that destroyed a University of Washington research center, but jurors spared her from the harshest punishment sought by federal prosecutors.

The jury in U.S. District Court in Tacoma deadlocked on three charges filed against Briana Waters, including one that could have sent the 32-year-old violin teacher to prison for 30 years. Waters now lives in Oakland, Calif.

She faces a minimum sentence of five years, and prosecutors said they will seek a longer prison term, up to 20 years. Sentencing is May 30.

Prosecutors said they will decide within a week whether to retry Waters on the charges that deadlocked the jury.

After the verdict was read, a crying Waters received hugs from her husband and her mother. Some among the dozen or so supporters seated behind Waters started crying.

"It's very upsetting to see an innocent mother being put in jail," supporter Leon Janssen of Olympia said.

Prosecutors called the verdict a victory in their effort to bring to justice a cell of the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front responsible for at least 17 arsons or acts of vandalism between 1996 and 2001. The primary hubs of the cell were in Olympia and Eugene, Ore.

All of the members of the cell, known as "The Family," either have been arrested or are fugitives, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Bartlett said.

"Everyone was held accountable," he added.

Robert Bloom, Waters' attorney, said the government succeeded in sending an innocent woman to prison.

Waters has maintained she had no involvement in the arson and likely was asleep in Olympia during the early morning arson on May 21, 2001. She was attending The Evergreen State College and had just finished a documentary on a successful campaign to stop a clear-cut in Lewis County.

"It's very troubling there's a conviction here," Bloom said. "And I can only attribute it to the components of fear that pervaded the courtroom."

He said the arson this week of three multimillion-dollar homes in Seattle might have influenced the jury. Evidence indicated ELF might have been responsible for the fires. Bloom said that was one of several issues he'd bring up on appeal. Jurors had said they could deliver an impartial verdict after being questioned that morning by U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess on the matter. Bartlett said the fact that deliberations ended in a hung jury on some of the charges showed jurors were able to reach an unbiased verdict.

The two arson charges stem from the single fire but spell out the different functions of the target building — as being involved in interstate commerce and belonging to an institution that receives federal funding. The three charges the 12 jurors deadlocked on were conspiracy, possession of an unregistered firearm and use of a destructive device in a crime of violence, which carried the mandatory prison sentence of 30 years.

A juror told The Associated Press that one factor that weighed on the deliberations was that Waters has a 3-year-old daughter.

"It was clearly emotional," said the juror, who refused to give his name. "At the time, she didn't have a daughter, but now she does."

He declined to comment further except to say that on the remaining counts, "It wasn't close one way or the other."

The jury deliberated for four days. When Burgess asked if they were "hopelessly deadlocked," the jurors nodded their heads.

Burgess ordered Waters, who was free on bond before and during the trial, taken into federal custody until sentencing. Bloom implored that Waters be allowed time with her family. The prosecutor said Waters is a convicted felon who lied on the stand and has not shown remorse.

"She has in every way failed to accept responsibility," Bartlett said.

The government first learned of Waters in January 2006 when a lawyer for Jennifer Kolar, one of two women who confessed to the arson, said she recalled Waters being the lookout. The other woman, Lacey Phillabaum, confirmed.

Investigators verified that and that Waters obtained the rental car used in the arson. She also provided a room behind the Olympia home she was living at for construction of the incendiary devices.

Waters' defense counsel said the women lied to shave decades off of their prison sentences, and a record of Waters' visit to a store the prior evening proved she couldn't have been in Seattle when they said she was.

The ALF-ELF cell targeted entities they thought to be harmful to animals and the environment. The group targeted the Center for Urban Horticulture under the mistaken belief a researcher was genetically engineering poplar trees.

Federal prosecutors say the UW blaze was part of a "double whammy" to bring more public attention to their campaign; a second five-member team set fire to an Oregon poplar farm the same night.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Christian Hill is a reporter for The Olympian. He can be reached at 360-754-5427 or chill@theolympian.com.