Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
A Marion County judge on Monday sentenced Lonnie Glinski, 45, of Sweet Home to more than 71 years in prison for planting four pipe bombs on vehicles in the Salem area in an attempt to kill his ex-wife, Stephanie Glinski, and gain custody of his two children.
Judge Tom Hart on Oct. 2 found Glinski guilty on 13 counts of attempted murder and four counts of unlawful possession of an explosive device.
Attorneys Mark J. Geiger and Stephen A. Lipton never denied that Glinski had manufactured and planted the bombs. Rather, they argued that he was legally insane.
Hart concluded that while Glinski may have suffered from depression, he was not legally insane.
“This community was in many instances fearful of what they might find under their cars because of the actions you took,” Hart told Glinski during the sentencing hearing. He said Glinski understood the criminal nature of his conduct, and “you could have conformed your conduct to the requirements of the law.”
When the first set of bombs failed to detonate and sparked an investigation, Glinski started planning another attack against the same targets, including his ex-wife and the same three he had attempted to use to confuse law enforcement investigators.
The second time, Glinski had fixed all of the problems with his bombs, Hart said. “The second go-around would have performed flawlessly.”
Glinski planted the bombs on four vehicles in the Salem-Dallas area in August 2006. All four failed to detonate. Two were found on vehicles. Two fell off of vehicles. Investigators never identified one of those vehicles.
Police arrested Glinski on Oct. 16.
“I am angry that you not only put your own children in danger and those that live with you that you should love and protect, but innocent bystanders as well,” Stephanie Glinski wrote in a letter read by prosecutor Matthew D. Kemmy. “I was in disbelief that you could even think of doing such a thing. I told the investigators that you wouldn’t put your kids in danger. It never crossed my mind that you would do such a thing. All this? Just to get back at me? You couldn’t figure out a way to be happy unless I was dead?
“I do hope you get life without possible parole, not because I ever wanted this for you but for the fact that my family will never feel safe unless you are locked up for good and because you chose selfishness over your children’s safety and deserve to spend what’s left of your life thinking about that.”
Victim Denise Foster told Glinski that he reacted wrongly to his problem.
“In life we have a lot of choices,” she said. “Even when we’re stressed and even when life doesn’t go the way it should, it doesn’t give you the right to kill people,” and consider them “collateral damage.”
Her husband was and is deployed in a combat zone, and she had to tell him that an IED (improvised explosive device) was left on her driveway, she said.
“You are truly a cruel, cold, calculating person,” Foster said. “This whole thing about the insanity was nothing more than an extension of your criminal mind.”
With Glinski in prison, she and her family along with the other victims and families will be able to go home and sleep safely, she said.
“It’s almost hard to comprehend,” Kemmy told the court, arguing that Glinski committed an act of terrorism, not just an attempt against his ex-wife. Kemmy said the community was terrorized as well.
Glinski was willing to risk his own children, Kemmy reminded the court.
“The level of evil it would take to kill your own children defies logic,” he said.
Kemmy asked the judge to impose a sentence that ensured Glinski dies in prison or that “he will be oldest man in the world when he finally gets out.”
That’s the sentence necessary to keep this community safe, Kemmy said. The prosecutor asked for a minimum of 90 years of prison.
Kathleen Miller spoke on Glinski’s behalf. She said he worked for her as a contractor.
“I would just like to say I knew Lonnie when he was still married,” she said. “He was very, very gentle at that time.”
He worked for her for quite a while, she said. “One day he just stopped coming. I had a bulldozer in my yard for six months.”
She talked to him a couple of times during that time, and he was crying about his wife leaving with the children, she said.
Glinski chose not to address the judge during sentencing.
He showed no reaction during the hearing, staring impassively most of the time and occasionally looking around. But as deputies led him out, he signaled to his ex-girlfriend, Laurie Girtman, making a writing motion with his hand.
Lipton asked for leniency, considering what Glinski had gone through and overcome during his life.
His mother “tried to kill him as an 8-month-old baby,” he said. “She poured cleaning fluid down his throat.”
That physically scarred him for life, Lipton said, and later his mother killed herself. He then lived with different foster families.
“It was inevitable that somehow this would all show up and be inflicted on the world,” Lipton said. He said Glinski repressed those experiences and he was able to ingratiate himself and get along with others.
“But Mr. Glinski was not acting with full clarity of mind,” Lipton said. He had certainly started to “operate in some other dimension.”
Lipton asked for a sentence of 40 years, one prison term for each bomb planted, which he said was a reasonable request that would allow Glinski “to get out and touch a blade of grass” before the end of his life.
He asked the court to leave Glinski’s assets to provide for Girtman, her children and his children.
“Maybe that’s his one class act before he is sent away out of everyone’s mind and memory for a very long time,” Lipton said.
Hart imposed a sentence of 71 years, eight months. Glinski may be eligible for release in the final five months.
“It’s hard to argue the judge should not have imposed consecutive sentences for each of the bombs he placed,” he said after sentencing. “Still, Mr. Glinski will receive no mental health treatment while he’s in a state prison.”