Nicholas John Smit, 41, began launching the attacks in late 2009, leaving police officers and residents in the city of Hemet terrified. The court heard that Smit was angry about being arrested for a drugs offence and made repeated efforts to eliminate the detective who had arrested him.
On Monday he was found guilty of four counts of attempted murder against the same police officer. During one of the attacks, natural gas was rerouted into a police office and rigged to explode. Smit, from San Jacinto, California, also fired a training rocket from the roof of a nearby market which started a small fire.
The attacks stemmed from Smit’s anger at Detective Chuck Johnson, who had arrested him earlier in 2009, prosecutors said.
On December 7, 2009, Johnson discovered a booby trap outside his home in Hemet, about 80 miles away from Los Angeles. The booby trap consisted of a board lined with nails connected to a trip wire that led to his unmarked police cruiser. The nails were barbed and smeared with feaces.
Over the next six months, members of the Hemet-San Jacinto Valley Gang Task Force — of which Johnson was a member — were targeted in eight more suspicious incidents, including arsons and attempted shootings.
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