Ex-Fugitive Waagner indicted in Ohio, to be sentenced first in Illinois
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Posted 6:18PM on Thursday, January 24, 2002
CINCINNATI - A former fugitive who had been on the FBI's ten most-wanted list for allegedly mailing hoax anthrax letters to abortion clinics nationwide was indicted in Cincinnati Thursday on firearms and stolen-car charges. <br>
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Forty-five-year-old Clayton Waagner is behind bars in Urbana, Illinois, where he is to be sentenced Friday on other federal convictions. <br>
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Justice Department officials must then decide whether he should be brought to Cincinnati for prosecution or taken to Philadelphia for prosecution on charges stemming from the alleged clinic threats. <br>
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U.S. Attorney Gregory Lockhart said the decision could come next week. <br>
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Investigators said Waagner had a loaded .40-caliber pistol tucked in his belt when he was arrested December fifth in the Cincinnati suburb of Springdale, and there was a rifle in a stolen car he is accused of driving. He was captured at a copying store after using a computer there. An employee recognized him from an FBI alert. <br>
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Thursday's six-count indictment charges Waagner with illegally possessing a handgun and a rifle as a fugitive and convicted felon; possessing a stolen handgun; and possessing a stolen car. He could get 15 years to life on those charges, plus fines of up to $250,000 each count. <br>
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The government says Waagner was convicted of aggravated burglary in Cleveland in July 1979, attempted robbery in Eaton in April 1992, and burglary in Atlanta in January 1979.