An anti-abortion extremist already behind bars for sending hundreds of letters with fake anthrax to women's clinics has agreed to plead guilty to carjacking, robbery and other offenses.
Clayton Lee Waagner, 49, said in documents filed Monday and Tuesday in federal court that he wants to plead guilty to a 2001 Mississippi carjacking, to weapons charges in Mississippi and Tennessee, and to robbing banks in 2001 in Harrisburg and Morgantown, W.Va.
"He's certainly remorseful and wants to get on with his life as best he can under these circumstances," his attorney, federal public defender James V. Wade, said Wednesday.
Waagner, who once said he was on a mission from God to kill abortion providers, is currently imprisoned at the Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary.
He was sentenced in 2003 to 19 years for the fake anthrax letters, and at the time of that sentencing was serving 49 years on firearms and escape charges.
The new plea deal, which is contingent on a judge's approval, covers crimes while he was on the run following the 2001 jail escape. Assistant U.S. Attorney Martin C. Carlson said the deal would resolve all federal charges currently pending against Waagner.
Waagner sent at least 550 anthrax-hoax letters to clinics in 24 states while he was on the run in 2001, according to authorities. The letters contained white powder and were signed, "Army of God."
He was arrested in December 2001 after an employee of a suburban Cincinnati copy shop recognized him from a wanted poster.
