WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - A Delaware man is facing up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to damaging an abortion clinic with an incendiary device.
Samuel Gulick, 19, of Middletown, pleaded guilty last week to charges of intentional damage to a facility that provides reproductive health services and possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Prosecutors dropped the most serious charge of maliciously damaging a building used in interstate commerce, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars.
Sentencing is set for June 2.
Security video recorded Gulick spray-painting the phrase “Deus Vult,” a Latin expression meaning “God wills it,” in red letters on the front of a Planned Parenthood facility in Newark shortly after 2 a.m. on Jan. 3 of last year.
Gulick then stepped away, lit an object and threw it at the front window. The object, which prosecutors described as a Molotov Cocktail, exploded and resulted in a fire that burned for about a minute before going out.
Gulick was arrested by the FBI the next day after investigators identified his car through the security video and found social media posts under his name containing the same phrase he scrawled on the building, along with several anti-abortion messages.
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