An Illinois man was handed down a 15-month prison sentence for pointing a laser at a law enforcement helicopter.
Brenton Wells, 45, pleaded guilty in August to pointing the laser beam at the helicopter in December of last year. He confessed to shining his laser at the helicopter for about two minutes while standing in the backyard of his Rockford residence.
Wells “continued to aim his laser pointer at the aircraft for a period of time even as the aircraft moved through the sky over his residence,” according to court documents.
In his sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paccagnini asked the judge to sentence Wells to 21 months in prison. Paccagnini noted that the two pilots of the helicopter had difficulty navigating the helicopter because of the glare of the beam.
Wells’s attorneys argued that he should be given probation. They wrote that Wells was “unaware of the effect that his laser pointer had on the individuals inside” the helicopter and that he “did not act with the express intent of harming the object, or the individuals inside.”
Wells was convicted in six separate incidents of retail theft between 2013 and 2016.
Aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft became a federal crime in 2012. Wells faced a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
