Boulder Firebomber Gets Life Without Parole

A man accused of a firebomb attack that killed one person and injured a dozen others while they were demonstrating in Boulder, Colorado, in support of Israeli hostages in Gaza pleaded guilty to murder and all other state charges and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole. Mohamed Sabry Soliman entered the pleas Thursday in Boulder County District Court. He pleaded guilty to a total of 101 charges, including two counts of first-degree murder and 52 counts of attempted first-degree murder, in connection with the attack in downtown Boulder last June 1, the Denver Post reports.

• Boulder County District Court Chief Judge Nancy W. Salomone sentenced Soliman to life without parole on the murder charges and gave him the maximum sentence for the other felonies, adding up to hundreds of years.

• Soliman's attorneys revealed he would plead guilty in a Sunday court filing in a related federal case. Soliman has pleaded not guilty to federal hate crime charges. Prosecutors are weighing whether to seek the death penalty in the federal case, according to his attorneys.
• Soliman initially pleaded not guilty in state court to murder and dozens of attempted murder and assault charges for throwing two Molotov cocktails at demonstrators at a pedestrian mall in downtown Boulder, a city of 100,000 people northwest of Denver that's home to the University of Colorado. Karen Diamond, 82, was injured in the attack and later died. A dozen others were also injured.
• In a statement read in court by a prosecutor, Diamond's sons asked that Soliman not be allowed to see his family again "since he is responsible for our mother never seeing her family again." Andrew and Ethan Diamond said their mother suffered "indescribable pain" for over three weeks before her death. "In those weeks, we learned the full meaning of the expressions living hell and fate worse than death," Diamond's sons said in the statement.
• Speaking to the court through an interpreter for nearly half an hour, Soliman offered apologies to the victims and condolences for Diamond's death. "There are no words that can express my sadness for her passing," Soliman said. He said he wasn't asking for leniency at sentencing for his convictions in state court and wants federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty. "If I went back, I would not have done this as this is not according to the teaching of Islam," Soliman said.

• Soliman is an Egyptian national who federal authorities say was living in the US illegally. Investigators say he planned the attack for a year and was driven by a desire "to kill all Zionist people."
• Investigators say Soliman told them he intended to kill the roughly 20 participants at the weekly demonstration at Boulder's Pearl Street pedestrian mall. He threw two of more than two dozen Molotov cocktails he had with him while yelling, "Free Palestine!"
• Boulder Mayor Pro Tem Tara Winer said the victims included some of her close friends. "It was a horrific attack," she told the AP. "Their lives were changed forever."
• Soliman's wife, Hayam El Gamal, and their children spent 10 months in immigration detention until a federal judge in Texas ordered their release in April. An immigration appeals court had dismissed their case to stay in the US and issued a deportation order. But US District Judge Fred Biery in San Antonio allowed their release on the condition that El Gamal and her oldest child, who is 18, wear electronic monitoring. The couple divorced after the attack.
• This story has been updated with new developments.