OXNARD : Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Arrest Charge
Oxnard High School graduate Steven Garrett Colbern, who was questioned but never publicly linked to the Oklahoma City bombing, pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of resisting arrest.
Colbern, 35, entered his plea in Los Angeles in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors agreed to drop a firearm charge in exchange for the plea.
Federal officials investigating the bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building arrested Colbern on May 12 in Oatman, Ariz. Prosecutors claimed that during the arrest Colbern reached for a gun in his pocket and struggled with federal marshals.
Investigators arrested Colbern after learning that he had befriended prime bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh and had a fascination with making bombs. Former classmates and teachers at Oxnard High, where he graduated in 1978, recalled Colbern’s penchant for bomb making. But investigators said soon after Colbern’s arrest that they believed he was not involved in the explosion at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
Colbern could be sentenced to a year in prison and fined as much as $100,000. Sentencing was set for Jan. 8.
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