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US: One year in prison for aiming a laser at a California Highway Patrol airplane

Andrew Zarate, 20
Fresno, California, US


Zarate was sentenced November 3 2014 to one year in prison and two years of supervised release, for aiming a laser at a California Highway Patrol aircraft. He could have received five years and a $250,000 fine for illuminating Air 43 up to 50 times with a “powerful green laser pointer” according to the FBI.

During the incident, the pilot suffered temporary blindness and Air 43 was forced to break away from a burglary in progress at a Fresno middle school.

Zarate’s co-defendent, David Walter Fee, was sentenced in September 2014 to 18 months in prison.