A man who graduated from a California university while out on bail for computer crimes pleaded guilty to emailing death threats to Latinos across the country and was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison.
Kingman Quon, who graduated in March from California State Polytechnic University in Pomona with a marketing degree while free on bail, was the second person to be prosecuted for sending hate messages over the Internet.
"I am truly sorry for what I did," said Quon, 22, who pleaded guilty in February to two counts of interfering with federally protected activities.
In sentencing Quon, US District Judge Edward Rafeedie said he doubted that the defendant intended to carry out any of his threats aimed at Latinos at universities, government agencies, and corporations, but was skeptical of the defendant's remorse.
"Defendants on the eve of sentencing turn over more new leaves than a March wind," Rafeedie said.
Prosecutors say Quon, who is Chinese-American, became angry with Latinos after becoming convinced that a Latino classmate who was working on a school project with him was not pulling his weight.
Quon sent hate-filled messages to Latino faculty members at various universities as well as to Latinos at the Internal Revenue Service, apparently picking his targets at random by looking for Hispanic names on Web pages.
Copyright© 1999 Reuters Limited.
