California: man pleads guilty to attacks on clinic and mosque

MADERA, Calif. — A Madera County man is facing time in federal prison after pleading guilty to firebombing a Planned Parenthood clinic and to vandalizing a mosque. Prosecutors say Donny Mower pleaded guilty Friday to arson, damaging religious property and to a law that makes it a federal crime to damage the property of a reproductive health services facility.

In pleading guilty, Mower admitted to throwing a firebomb into the Madera Planned Parenthood Clinic in September 2010. The fire from the device caused more than $26,000 worth of damage. The 38-year-old Mower also admitted to throwing a brick at a Madera mosque about a month earlier. The brick damaged the facade of the mosque.

Prosecutors say the arson conviction could send Mower to prison for five to 20 years, while he could get one year each on the other charges. Mower is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 6.

Associated Press, 7 October 2011