Failed bomb plotter in Ohio given 6 years

Anthony Hayne, 36, of Cleveland, apologized before being sentenced in U.S. District Court. His guilty plea and offer to testify for prosecutors quickly led three of his co-defendants to plead guilty.

A fifth defendant is undergoing a psychiatric exam.

Hayne, who was at greater risk of a long sentence because of his criminal record for theft and breaking and entering, had pleaded guilty in a deal seeking to avoid a possible life sentence. He stuck with his guilty plea but backed out of the plea deal, hoping his sentence would still wind up less than his co-defendants.

"What I did was wrong," Hayne told the court. And, in an apparent reference to co-defendants who blamed their involvement on liquor or drugs, added, "I blame it on myself."

The men were arrested in an FBI sting operation targeting a highway bridge over the Cuyahoga Valley National Park between Cleveland and Akron. The FBI has said the public was never in danger and the device was a dud provided by an informant.

Still, the fact that the device was a dud "is not a defense," Judge David Dowd said.

The suspects were described by the government as self-proclaimed anarchists who acted out of anger against corporate America and the government. The defense has called the investigation a case of entrapment, with the informant guiding the way.