Prosecutors will have another key witness to help prove their case when they go to trial later this month in the 1997 bombing of a Sandy fur farm.
Clinton Colby Ellerman, 22, Draper, pleaded guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court to making the five pipe bombs used to bomb the Fur Breeders Agricultural Cooperative on March 11, 1997. The bombs and subsequent fires caused close to $1 million damage to the co-op's business offices and four company trucks.As part of Ellerman's plea bargain he agreed to testify against the final three defendants remaining in the case -- Andrew N. Bishop, 24, Ithaca, N.Y.; Sean Albert Gauschy, 23, Salt Lake City; and Adam Troy Peace, 21, Huntington Beach, Calif. Their trial is set for Aug. 30.
Ellerman's younger brother, Douglas Joshua Ellerman, 21, pleaded guilty last year to planting the bombs in the co-op's offices. He was sentenced to seven years in prison and ordered to pay $750,000 in restitution. He also will testify at the trial.
Another defendant, Alexander David Slack, 24, Sandy, committed suicide in June.
All were members of the Animal Liberation Front and associated with the Straight Edge gang -- a group of middle-class teens who profess to shun drugs, alcohol, tobacco and sex. Some members are also vegans.
The ALF targeted the co-op, 8720 S. 700 West, because it's a major provider of furs. The co-op, with more than 50 employees, provides about 20 percent of the furs nationally.
Ellerman told Judge Thomas Greene that he only made the bombs and was not at the co-op the night the bombs were used. However, he knew what the bombs were going to be used for and knew the others planned to ignite the bombs simultaneously throughout the co-op.
In late 1997 Ellerman was sentenced to two years in jail for his role in the July 1996 raid on a South Jordan mink farm.
Ellerman told federal prosecutors earlier this year that he planned to accept their plea bargain. Two other ALF members, Eben Andrew McKenzie, 25, and Dustin Chappell Black, 24, both of Salt Lake City, were charged in April with retaliating against a witness for allegedly threatening Ellerman when they learned he planned to testify. Their case is set for trial next month.
The charges Ellerman pleaded guilty to Thursday were making a pipe bomb, malicious destruction with a bomb and using a bomb in an act of violence. Ten other charges against him will be dismissed.
The crime of using a bomb in an act of violence carries a minimum prison term of 30 years. However, in exchange for Ellerman's testimony, prosecutors will ask Judge Thomas Greene to vary below that guideline. Doug Ellerman was facing a similar minimum and was sentenced to a prison term of seven years for his cooperation.