A man got the maximum sentence of life in prison for inundating 14,000 acres of farmland by removing five sandbags from a Mississippi River levee during the height of the Midwest floods.
James R. Scott of Fowler, Ill., had told friends he wanted to break the levee at West Quincy to strand his estranged wife at her job across the river.Scott, a convicted arsonist and burglar, had faced a minimum 10-year sentence on a state charge of causing a catastrophe. But Circuit Judge Bruce Normile said Monday that Scott's criminal past and the extent of the damage he caused warranted a life sentence.
Scott, 24, confessed to police that he pulled the sandbags from the levee shortly before it broke July 16, 1993.
Jurors were shown videotape shot from a helicopter that showed the flood's brown, muddy water covering green fields and quickly rising to tree-top level.
The water ripped through a mile-long business strip, destroyed scores of buildings and toppled fuel storage tanks, which leaked and fueled orange fireballs atop the water.
The water also closed a bridge for 71 days that was the only link between Missouri and Illinois for 200 miles.