Receives A 10 Year Sentence After Guilty Plea

A 41-year-old Texas man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to shooting at an airplane ... a federal offence.

The incident occurred Feb 22, 2008, according to a report from the Wichita Falls Times Record News and relayed by the online news source The Examiner. Stephen Riley was charged with shooting at a cropduster that was working a field close to property he owns near the north Texas town of Olny, about thirty miles south of Wichita Falls, TX. Riley ran a hunting operation on the property, called Riley's Flying Lead Ranch, where he also maintains a residence.

The investigation reportedly took several years, with authorities developing evidence against Riley over that time. When they served a search warrant at his ranch, they obtained a video of Riley firing about 20 rounds at an aircraft spraying a nearby field in 2007. He admitted in court that it was not the only time he had fired a gun at an airplane.

The airplane in the 2008 incident for which he pleaded guilty was hit several times; one round nearly severed a rudder cable and another struck the V-strut of the airplane. The trailing edge of the left wing was also damaged.

Riley pleaded guilty to Destruction of an Aircraft. He has also been ordered to pay restitution for the damages to the airplane.

FMI: www.txnd.uscourts.gov/jury/wichitafalls.html