Three Salt Lake County men have been sentenced to jail terms and fines for firing a potato cannon at a man last fall.
Theren Kingston, 31, Arthur Kingston, 20, and Robert Cadman, 21, must each spend 14 days in jail, pay $1,075 in fines, complete 200 hours of community service and pass high-school equivalency tests before their 18-month probations expire."This is extremely dangerous conduct," 3rd Circuit Court Commissioner Judith Atherton said at the sentencing Thursday. "Had the man been hit, you'd be in much more serious trouble."
On Sept. 23, a potato was fired at a Salt Lake resident from a moving pickup truck.
The homemade cannon, constructed of plastic pipe and charged with car-starting fluid, can fire a potato at muzzle speeds greater than a .45-caliber pistol slug.
The potato missed the man. He chased the truck in his car while calling police on a cellular phone.
Five men were charged with third-degree felony aggravated assault. Charges against two of the men were dismissed and the other three pleaded guilty to class A misdemeanor attempted discharge of a firearm from a vehicle.
The defendants say they were going to the store to get more potatoes when the cannon fired accidentally.
Legal defender Patrick Anderson said the defendants now realize how "stupid and dangerous" their behavior was. "But they did not intend to harm anyone," he said.
Deputy Salt Lake County Attorney Howard Lemcke said not only did the men act dangerously by firing the weapon, but others may now be tempted to use potato cannons.
Experts say the cannons can explode.
"What if the potato doesn't give?" asked Salt Lake County Fire Department bomb expert Bill Niles. "You've created a pipe bomb."
Salt Lake City police Detective Jill Candland said the inability to accurately measure the amount of gas in a given charge could be deadly. `You don't know how much vapor is in there, or what the seal (around the potato) is like," she said. "It could blow up in your face."