Skinhead's Sad Past Doesn't Sway Judge

It's too late to do anything about Mark Kowaalski's tragic past, which he says included an abusive mother who turned him on to drugs and beat him before eventually abandoning him to the streets of New Jersey when he was 12.

But it's not too late for Kowaalski to do something about his future.

Those were the thoughts of U.S. District Judge Barbara Rothstein on Friday before she sentenced Kowaalski, 24, of Auburn to 12 years in federal prison for his role as the alleged ringleader of a skinhead bombing and murder plot.

The sentencing signaled the nearing end of a case that first grabbed attention after the July 20 bombing of the Tacoma headquarters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Subsequently, authorities uncovered a skinhead bombing and murder plot against African Americans and Jewish Americans along the West Coast.

Documents filed by Kowaalski's attorneys in preparation for the sentencing hearing also shed light on his troubled past, which he says played a part in the formation of his racist skinhead ideas.

In October, Kowaalski pleaded guilty to throwing the pipe bomb at the NAACP hall, transporting explosives and violating the civil rights of racial minorities. His two accomplices, skinhead Jeremiah Knesal, 19, of Auburn and Wayne Wooten Jr., 18, of Tacoma, pleaded guilty last month to federal charges in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif.

Kowaalski's attorneys had argued for an eight-year sentence, citing federal guidelines in which a "childhood of deprivation" allows for a downgraded sentence.

Though acknowledging she was "very moved" by Kowaalski's life story, Rothstein rejected the arguments.

"You've had many points in your life to decide to depart from this path you're on, but you haven't," she said. "You know it, we know. The only mystery that remains is your future."

Rothstein also told Kowaalski that if he committed more violent acts after his release he'd spend the rest of his life in prison.

Kowaalski says in court documents that his mother was a prostitute who routinely came home drunk and often was abusive. He recalled putting her to bed, placing a bucket near her in case she got sick and cooking for her in the morning.

He said she moved him and his brother often. One day when he was 12, he came home to find the house empty. His mother had moved without telling him or his brother.

Six months later, his brother committed suicide, he said.

By age 13, Kowaalski said he had tried LSD, heroin, angel dust, Quaaludes and Valium. He said his mother and her boyfriends thought it was "cute" when he got high.

He said he didn't meet his father until he was 21 and serving time in a New Mexico jail after being convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon during a knife fight. During that fight, police said Kowaalski incited a riot by yelling white-supremacist slogans and goose-stepping on a nightclub stage.

He talked of "running wild in the streets" and living in abandoned buildings where he eventually met other skinheads.

His first exposure to the movement came from his cousin, who was a Suedehead, a type of skinhead originally from the 1960s. Later, Kowaalski said, he was influenced by a friend's slaying at the hands of two black men.

He said finding skinheads ended his constant search for family.

Paul Deutsch, Kowaalski's public defender, argued that letters Kowaalski wrote to the court last year show he is on a path toward change. Kowaalski still believes in separatism but no longer believes in violence to achieve those "political goals," his attorney said.

Kowaalski wrote the letters after writing others to a friend in which he maintained his violent views, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joanne Maida told the judge. Maida used those letters to argue for a 14-year sentence.

Kowaalski displayed no emotion at Friday's sentencing. Reading from a statement, he said his six months in jail had given him a lot of time to think about his views.

"It's been quite an experience - one I won't forget," he said flatly.

His appearance was much different than at his initial court hearing in July. At that hearing, his hair was cropped close, skinhead-style, and tattoos were visible on his heavily muscled arms. On Friday, grown-out hair was slicked back, and he wore a long-sleeve sweater.

All that remains in the case is for Knesal and Wooten to complete their pleas and be sentenced.

Knesal pleaded guilty to four counts of receiving, transporting and possessing explosives, and carrying and transporting unregistered firearms. Wooten pleaded guilty to one count of possessing and aiding and abetting the possession of unregistered destructive devices.

Knesal and Wooten face additional charges out of U.S. District Court in Seattle, said U.S. Attorney Steven Freccero.

A Feb. 9 hearing has been set in San Jose so Knesal can enter a plea to conspiring to deprive citizens of civil rights and Wooten can enter a plea to aiding and abetting in a crime involving explosives.

Wooten's charge stems from the June attempted bombing of the Elite Tavern, a gay bar on Seattle's Capitol Hill.

If they are sentenced for all counts, Knesal will face a maximum 45 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines, and Wooten will face 20 years and $500,000 in fines.