The State - News from Feb. 18, 1987

The lovers who fled a federal penitentiary in a stolen helicopter can try to persuade a jury that prison dangers forced them to escape--but a San Francisco judge said that defense will not be allowed on a charge of hijacking the aircraft. U.S. District Judge Eugene Lynch ruled that defendant Ronald McIntosh had failed to show that he had “no reasonable, legal alternative” to stealing the helicopter at gunpoint. The ruling means that McIntosh cannot try to justify the alleged hijacking by claiming it was necessary in order to rescue Samantha Lopez from threats made against her in the Federal Correctional Institution at Pleasanton. Trial is set for March 30.