[meteorite-list] Moon-Rock Plotter Guilty

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:22:34 2004
Message-ID: <200306051519.IAA23130_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/custom/space/orl-locmoon05060503jun05,0,5512064.story

Moon-rock plotter guilty
By Henry Pierson Curtis
Orlando Sentinel
June 5, 2003

The moon-rock caper ended Wednesday in federal court in Orlando with
guilty verdicts for the last of four thieves.

Yet sentencing must wait until the court determines the market value for
extraterrestrial specimens later this summer. This will be the first time a
price has been set on lunar rocks.

So Gordon McWhorter returned to his cell at the Seminole County Jail
without knowing whether his crime would rank among the world's most
potentially lucrative, yet ludicrous, burglaries. He faces up to 25 years in
prison; the value of the stolen rocks will help determine the length of his
sentence.

A single nugget in the booty lifted from the Johnson Space Center in Houston
last July by the gang, who may have the highest IQ but the least common sense
in history, is worth at least $1.4 million.

That quarter-ounce of space debris turned out to be a sample of ALH84001, a
Martian meteorite, which scientists say may show signs of life on the red
planet.

Stealing it was the equivalent of grabbing the Mona Lisa because there was no
place to sell the one-of-a-kind item without getting caught, according to
three days of testimony by National Aeronautics and Space Administration
scientists.

The rest of the booty would have flooded the international collecting market
with 101.5 grams of previously unavailable moon rocks. The collection could
be worth more than $500 million, according to some estimates.

Trying to find willing buyers, the three super-bright NASA interns who
were McWhorter's accomplices had him offer the rocks on the Internet for as
little as $2,000 a gram.

The price was more than 200 times lower than the only public sale of lunar
material when, in 1993, Sotheby's auctioned three flecks weighing less than a
gram for $442,500.

The former interns, Thad Roberts, 26, of Utah, Tiffany Fowler, 23, and Shae
Lynn Saur, 20, both of Texas, pleaded guilty after their arrests last year to
conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.
They were part of a summer program in which NASA hires top science
students from U.S. colleges.

The trio will be sentenced Aug. 5, the same day as the evidentiary hearing to
set the market value of the stolen rocks.

McWhorter, 27, of Utah, stood trial, claiming that he didn't learn the moon
rocks were stolen until the day he was arrested trying to sell them in Orlando.

McWhorter, Roberts and Fowler were caught trying to negotiate the sale to
two undercover FBI agents.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Rachelle DesVaux Bedke convinced the 12-member
jury in U.S. District Judge Anne C. Conway's courtroom that McWhorter
willingly joined the conspiracy to steal and sell the rocks.

"Wild horses couldn't keep me away," she said, quoting an e-mail
McWhorter wrote to ringleader Roberts of his intent to attend the sale.

Defense lawyer Daniel F. Daly of Tampa said he intends to appeal the verdict.
McWhorter will be sentenced Aug. 27.

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis_at_orlandosentinel.com or
407-420-5257.
Received on Thu 05 Jun 2003 11:19:08 AM PDT