EAST ST. LOUIS, IL — An explosives-trained Army veteran who wore a fake bomb during a standoff that followed a phone call to a mosque in which he threatened to “start an apocalypse” was sentenced Friday to five years in prison by a federal judge who called the matter an escalation of the man’s aggression.
U.S. District Judge David Herdon wasn’t swayed by Roman Conaway’s apology during a rambling, 18-minute appeal for leniency, handing the former Walmart worker a prison term longer than the four years and two months prosecutors sought. Conaway’s attorney pressed for a sentence of 2 1/2 years.