Capitol Fax com - Your Illinois News Radar » Anti-abortion activist to be brought before federal judge over allegedly attempting to destroy building that will be used as a Danville abortion clinic capitolfax.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from capitolfax.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Chicago (AP) A central Illinois man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to a Planned Parenthood clinic last month, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday. Tyler W. Massengill, 32, of Chillicothe admitted to setting fire to the Peoria clinic with an explosive on Jan. 15, two days after Illinois approved expansive reproductive health care legislation aimed at protecting abortion patients and providers. Massengill, who pleaded guilty Thursday, is in jail awaiting sentencing scheduled for July 6 at the federal courthouse in Peoria. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Security cameras caught him approaching the building with a bottle, lighting a rag on one end of it, smashing a window and putting the incendiary device inside before quickly fleeing on foot. No patients or staff were inside. When Massengill was arrested on Jan. 24, he told investigators that he set fire to the building because he was reminded of an abor