[meteorite-list] Suspect In Moon Rock Theft A No-Show

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:05 2004
Message-ID: <200304081559.IAA27536_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

 

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-locmoonrock08040803apr08,0,1912169.story?coll=orl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines%2Dspace

Suspect in moon-rock theft is a no-show
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
April 8, 2003

Moon rocks won't be on display as planned this week in federal court in
Orlando, because one of the four people accused of stealing them didn't show
up for trial Monday.

U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway issued a bench warrant for Gordon
McWhorter's arrest. Court staff said the earliest the trial could take place
now would be next month.

McWhorter, 27, was the only one of the four defendants who did not plead
guilty to last year's thefts from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The specimens came from every Apollo mission from 1969 to 1972. The
suspects, three of whom were summer interns working for NASA, carried
away a 600-pound safe that also contained meteorites from Mars.

The FBI in Tampa began investigating in May 2002 when a Belgian rock
collector alerted investigators to Internet offers to sell moon rocks for
$1,000 to $5,000 a gram.

On July 20, FBI agents posing as buyers arrested McWhorter, Thad R.
Roberts, 26, and Tiffany Fowler, 23, in Orlando at the Sheraton Studio City
Hotel on International Drive. The fourth defendant, Shae L. Saur, 20, was
arrested in Texas.

The moon rocks were found in the trio's Orlando hotel room in a fishing
tackle box that also contained meteorites and NASA records documenting
their authenticity, according to court records.

Roberts, Fowler and Saur previously pleaded guilty and planned to testify
against McWhorter, according to court records.

McWhorter had been staying with his mother in North Carolina. She did not
return a telephone message Monday. He could face up to 10 years in prison and
$250,000 in fines on charges of stealing property of value to the United States
and interstate transportation of stolen property.

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at 407-420-5257 or
hcurtis_at_orlandosentinel.com.
Received on Tue 08 Apr 2003 11:59:17 AM PDT