As he readied to depart office, Governor Andrew Cuomo, the Empire State’s sex-harasser in chief, couldn’t resist one last thumb in the eye to New Yorkers: He commuted the prison sentence of terrorist murderer David Gilbert, who was convicted of murder in the deaths of three people in the 1981 Brinks Armored Car Robbery.
Gilbert and his “partner,” terrorist Kathy Boudin, helped organize the murder-robbery raid with other members of the May 19 Communist Organization.
The two killers are the parents of San Francisco’s leftist District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, who has undermined law enforcement to give criminals free reign in the city. Boudin, of course, is delighted that his murderer-father appears headed for early release.
The Commutation
Though Cuomo didn’t spring Gilbert from jail immediately, the move means he can go before a parole board ahead of schedule. He will likely be released.
Calling the murder-robbery raid an “incident” in which Gilbert “was the driver, not the murderer,” Cuomo explained that Gilbert — contrary to the what the families of the murdered men believe — is an upstanding member of society.
In prison for the last 40 years, Gilbert “made significant contributions to AIDS education and prevention programs,” Cuomo claims, and “he also worked as student tutor, law library clerk, paralegal assistant, teacher’s aide.”
“The march towards a more fair, more just, more equitable, and more empathetic New York State is a long one, but every step forward we can take it worthwhile and important,” Cuomo said:
These clemencies make clear the power of redemption, encourage those who have made mistakes to engage in meaningful rehabilitation, and show New Yorkers that we can work toward a better future. I thank all the volunteer attorneys representing clemency applicants for their dedication and service to justice.
When Cuomo will nominate Gilbert for the Nobel Peace Prize we are not given to know.
Understandably, Gilbert’s son, San Francisco D.A. Chesa Boudin, is beside himself. “My heart is bursting,” Chesa tweeted:
On the eve of my first child’s birth, my dad — who’s been in prison nearly my entire life — was granted clemency.
He never intended harm, yet his crime devastated many families.
My heart breaks for the families that can never get their loved ones back.
The Robbery
Boudin’s heart, of course, isn’t breaking for those families, and the idea that his murderer-father “never intended harm” is something only a certifiable idiot would believe.
Here’s the summary of Gilbert’s crimes from leftist Wikipedia, which calls him an “activist:”
At 3:55 pm [on October 20, 1981], Brink’s guards Peter Paige and Joseph Trombino emerged from the mall carrying bags of money. As they loaded the money into the truck, the robbers stormed out of their van and attacked. One fired two shotgun blasts into the truck’s bulletproof windshield, while another opened fire with an M16 rifle. Paige was hit multiple times in the chest and killed instantly. Trombino was able to fire a single shot from his handgun, but was struck in the shoulder and arm by several rounds, nearly severing his arm from his body. The truck’s driver, James Kelly, noticing the shooting behind him, fired several rounds at the robbers through a gun port on the door of his truck, but came under heavy gunfire, and took cover underneath the dashboard, but he was hit in the head by glass and bullet shrapnel. The assailants grabbed $1.6 million in cash, got back in their van, and fled the scene.…
After fleeing the scene, the robbers drove to the parking lot where a yellow Honda and the U-Haul truck, manned by members of the May 19 Communist Organization, were waiting. The robbers quickly threw the bags of money into the car and truck and sped away. In a house across the street Sandra Torgersen, an alert college student, spotted them as they switched vehicles and called the police.
Meanwhile, police units from all over the county were converging on the mall where the shootout occurred and attempting to cut off all possible escape routes. Soon, police officers Edward O’Grady, Waverly Brown, Brian Lennon, and Artie Keenan spotted and pulled over the U-Haul truck, with Boudin in the front seat, along with the yellow Honda at an entrance ramp to the New York State Thruway off New York State Route 59. The police were not sure if they had the right truck, since it had been reported that the robbers were all black, while the occupants of this vehicle were white (a deliberate part of the original plan by the robbers, hoping to fool the police). Since the truck matched the description of the getaway vehicle they were looking for, the officers pulled it over and approached with guns drawn.
The police officers who caught them testified that Boudin, feigning innocence, pleaded with them to put down their guns and convinced them to drop their guard; Boudin said she remained silent, that the officers relaxed spontaneously. After the police lowered their guns, six men armed with automatic weapons and wearing body armor emerged from the back of the truck and began firing upon the four police officers. Officer Brown managed to fire two or three rounds at the robbers before he was hit repeatedly by rifle rounds and collapsed on the ground. One robber then walked up to his prone body and fired several more shots into him with a 9mm handgun, ensuring his death. Keenan was shot in the leg, but managed to duck behind a tree and return fire.
Officer O’Grady lived long enough to empty his revolver, but as he reloaded, he was shot several times with an M16. Ninety minutes later, he died on a hospital operating table. Meanwhile, Lennon, who was in his cruiser when the shootout began, tried to exit out the front passenger door, but O’Grady’s body was wedged up against the door. He watched as the suspects jumped back into the U-Haul and sped directly towards him. Lennon fired his shotgun several times at the speeding truck as it collided with his police car, then fired two rounds from his pistol.
Cops raided a terrorist hideout and found “bomb-making materials, and detailed blueprints of six Manhattan police precincts.”
At least Kathy Boudin dropped her 14-month-old son at the babysitter before committing murder. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Gilbert was tried, convicted, and sentenced to 75 yearsGuilty as Sin, Free as a Bird
What Chesa Boudin thinks his father actually intended he did not say. But Boudin’s pro-crime reign as chief law-enforcement officer in San Francisco, which has directly led to at least two homicides, have inspired a recall effort.
Two other terrorists, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, raised the future district attorney while Gilbert and Kathy Boudin served time. She was paroled in 2003 and works for Columbia University.
Ayers, who, with Dorhn, planted bombs, summarized his escape and has bragged that he’s “guilty as sin, free as a bird.”
Both became university professors.
Soon, Gilbert will be free as a bird. Maybe a university will hire him, too.
