“This was not so much an act of terrorism as a person going through personal issues during COVID, the loss of a marriage and his business,” Mesmarian’s attorney, Jeffrey Nicholson, told The Associated Press after sentencing. Nicholson said he sought probation, but he called Clark County District Court Judge Ronald Israel’s sentence “a good and fair decision.”
CO MAN SAYS HE LIT THE FIRE AT A SOLAR NV SITE TO SHOW HIS SUPPORT FOR CLEAN ENERGY
Mesmarian has already served about a year in detention and may be granted parole in early 2024.
Mohammed Mesmarian appears in court during his arraignment at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Jan. 10, 2023. (Bizuayehu Tesfaye/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)
Mesmarian, a dentist, is from Aurora, Colorado, where state records showed he faced Dental Board discipline and his license to practice was restricted in July 2022. Records also showed that Mesmarian filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October 2022. Nicholson said Wednesday he didn’t immediately know the status of his client’s dental license.
Mesmarian was first charged with terrorism, arson, destruction of assets and absconding. He spent months in detention in a judicial process that finally made us decide that he was competent to stand trial.
A terror suspect who set fire to a Nevada solar power plant is deemed unworthy of trial
Police said no one was injured in the Jan. 4 fire, which was not quickly detected. Mesmaian was discovered and arrested a day later at a campsite at Lake Mead, the Colorado River Reservoir and the Hoover Dam, east of Las Vegas.
Investigators said they learned that Mesmarian crashed his car into a fence, crashed it into a transformer, set it on fire and sat in a chair watching the flames for about 15 minutes before driving away.
The incident in Nevada came days after two men were arrested and charged with vandalizing electrical substations in Washington state and a month after federal regulators ordered a review of protection criteria following shootings that damaged two electrical substations in North Carolina.
The Las Vegas-area facility, known as the Mega Solar Array, is operated by Chicago-based Invenergy. It serves several MGM Resorts International properties including Bellagio, MGM Grand, Aria and Park MGM. The resort operator said it switched to the statewide electric grid, and there was no effect at the casino resorts. Officials said the power facility returned to service within days.