Florida pipe bomb suspect expected to plead guilty next week

NEW YORK — A Florida man charged with sending pipe bombs to prominent critics of President Donald Trump is expected to plead guilty next week.

A notice entered in the case file of Cesar Sayoc in Manhattan federal court shows a plea hearing has been scheduled for next Thursday.

Without a plea deal, Sayoc, 56, faced charges carrying a potential penalty of mandatory life in prison. It was not known which charge or charges the plea would involve.

Sayoc was set to go to trial in July on charges that he sent 16 improvised explosive devices through the U.S. mail to victims across the country. None exploded.

Authorities say he targeted numerous Democrats, critics of the Republican president and CNN, heightening tensions before midterm elections.

The charges said he aimed to “kill, injure and intimidate an individual and unlawfully to damage and destroy a building, vehicle, and other real and person property.”

Comment was requested Friday in an email to defense lawyers and a call to prosecutors.

The New York-born Sayoc has been held without bail since his late-October arrest outside a South Florida auto parts store. He had been living in a van covered with stickers of Trump and showing images of some Trump opponents with crosshairs over their faces.

In the indictment, prosecutors noted that an improvised explosive mailed to former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in Chappaqua, New York, contained a picture of her and members of her family marked with a red “X.”

The indictment said others targeted by the mailings received similarly marked pictures of themselves along with the explosives.

Others targeted by the mailings included former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, California Sen. Kamala Harris and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Packages were also mailed to CNN in New York and Atlanta.

Prosecutors say evidence against Sayoc includes DNA linking him to 10 of the explosive devices and fingerprints on two of them.