SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A father and son convicted of planting a bomb that killed two Oregon police officers have been sentenced to death.
The Statesman Journal reports Marion County Circuit Court judge Tom Hart signed death warrants for Bruce Turnidge and his son Joshua Turnidge Monday afternoon. A jury last month recommended they be executed.
Bruce Turnridge spoke Monday, criticizing the police investigation and the jury’s decision. Joshua Turnidge denied involvement in the bombing.
Prosecutors argued that the men hated authorities, were desperate for money and hatched a plot to rob the West Coast Bank in Woodburn. The blast killed state police bomb technician William Hakim and Woodburn Capt. Tom Tennant. The town’s police chief lost his leg in the December 2008 explosion.
