Utah environmental fugitive involved in Fla. Keys shooting sentenced on waste, assault charges

Utah environmental fugitive sentenced in Fla.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah man who fled the state after being charged with environmental crimes and later was shot after confronting law officers in Florida with an assault rifle was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday.

Larkin Baggett was shot twice and wounded March 10 when federal agents and sheriff’s deputies arrested him at a marina in the Florida Keys town of Marathon.

He was among the most-wanted environmental offenders sought by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA began publishing the list of fugitives last year.

U.S. District Court Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced Baggett in Key West, Fla.

Court records said Baggett brandished a .308-caliber Bushmaster assault rifle at officers and ignored commands to show his hands.

“He was heard to state words to the effect ‘I won’t go’ and ‘take this’ as he attempted to raise the assault rifle to firing position, sweeping the barrel towards several of the exposed agents,” prosecutors said in court documents.

After Baggett was shot, officers found four rifles and four handguns in his travel trailer. The assault rifle had two fully loaded 30-round magazines.

Baggett in July pleaded guilty to four counts of assaulting a law enforcement officer with a deadly weapon and one count of being a fugitive in possession of a firearm. He also pleaded guilty to the original Utah charges of violating the federal Clean Water Act and illegally disposing of hazardous waste.

Baggett fled Utah before his scheduled June 2008 trial on charges that his company, Chemical Consultants Inc. of North Salt Lake dumped hazardous chemicals into drains, a paved alley and into grates leading to a sewer district.

He also has been ordered to pay restitution of $39,000 for losses sustained because of the dumping in Utah.