LOS ANGELES: A man who attempted to detonate a homemade bomb in a shopping centre near the Columbine high school on the 12th anniversary of the Colorado massacre was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.
US District Judge John Kane handed down the life sentence in Denver against Earl Albert Moore, 66, who pleaded guilty in December to using a destructive device in the course of a crime of violence.
The bomb, which was found along with two propane canisters, never detonated but it caused a fire that forced the evacuation of the Southwest Plaza Mall in Littleton, Colorado.
Moore was arrested several days later by the FBI after a national manhunt, and he was indicted May 5, 2011.
The incident occurred on April 20, 2011, the 12th anniversary of the massacre of 13 people at Columbine high school in Littleton by two students who ended the rampage by killing themselves.
Investigators ruled out any link between the two events.
But US Attorney John Walsh said Moore's sentence "sends a clear message to all those who seek to do the public harm that they will be caught and they will be punished severely."