A San Diego man previously warned against landing his private plane on a Pacific island that is part of a U.S. Navy base flew there again in April and stole a truck, causing a lockdown, federal prosecutors said.
Andrew Kyle White, 37, landed his Glastar airplane on a San Clemente Island naval airstrip for the second time on April 6, when he abandoned the aircraft, drove around the military installation in the stolen Navy truck and “evaded capture overnight,” according to prosecutors.
While driving the vehicle, White destroyed multiple gates and visited different locations that had been blocked off on the island, which is a part of Los Angeles County and Naval Base Coronado, prosecutors said.
Now, White is facing prison time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a Sept. 15 news release. He pleaded guilty to theft of government property in excess of $1,000 and illegal entry into a naval installation.
“Whatever (White’s) intentions were, the military did not know them; they responded as one might expect the military to respond to an unknown threat: they assumed the worst,” prosecutors wrote in court filings. “The island went on a complete lockdown.”
White has been detained by federal authorities after prosecutors said “he violated the terms of his bond by cutting off his ankle bracelet earlier this year.”
Criminal defense attorneys retained by White, Domenic J. Lombardo and Ellis M Johnston III, did not immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment Sept. 16.
White first flew his private plane to San Clemente Island without permission on Oct. 29, 2023, according to prosecutors.
In court documents, his attorneys argued his “curiosity got the most of him.”
San Clemente Island, owned by the Navy since 1937, is home to the Navy’s sole live firing range. There, the Navy and Marine Corps train in all aspects of warfare, including gunnery, bombardment, air defense, and anti-sub and electronic warfare, according to the military.
After first flying to the island, the Navy told White not to come back, prosecutors said.
White was issued a letter, which he acknowledged and signed, informing him that it is a federal offense to visit San Clemente Island without the Navy’s approval, according to prosecutors.
But White went back on April 6 and engaged “in whatever behavior he felt like,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memo.
In the filing, prosecutors wrote this led Navy personnel to set off on a “highly dangerous mission.”
In a Navy victim impact statement, Capt. L. M. Jacobi, the commanding officer of Naval Base Coronado, wrote White put “active duty and civil service members at risk while negatively impacting military readiness and costing the DOD nearly 500 man-hours and ~$500K.”
White also caused about $8,077 in damages and costs in connection with the stolen truck he used to destroy gates located along the base, according to prosecutors.
After White’s plane was found empty at San Clemente Island the evening of April 6, Jacobi explained he ordered a lockdown because of the potential for a dangerous threat.
Searching the island’s remote terrain was difficult for Navy personnel who faced “extremely challenging” weather and were exposed to “multiple historic bombing ranges that have not been swept for unexploded ordnance,” Jacobi wrote in the Navy’s statement.
White is facing up to 10 years in prison on the charge of theft of government property and up to six months in prison on the charge of illegally entering a naval installation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. He is set to be sentenced on Sept. 29.
His attorneys have asked the court to issue White a sentence of time served, arguing in a sentencing memo that he has accepted responsibility and understands his actions were “misguided.”
In White’s defense, Lombardo and Johnston wrote that White has a deep passion for coastal and offshore fisheries, adding that he has innovated a variety of fishing technologies after having graduated from Kearny Mesa Construction Tech High School, a magnet school in the San Diego Unified School District.
They argued White’s passion resulted in “the conduct resulting in this felony conviction.”
White’s interest in fisheries led him to get his pilot’s license and to customize his single-engine Glastar plane, which he used as a fish spotter while working different fisheries “north and south of the border,” his attorneys wrote in the sentencing memo.
He loved to fly around San Clemente Island, the sentencing memo says.
In the Navy’s statement, Jacobi asked the court to issue White the maximum sentence.
Prosecutors, however, are seeking a sentence of six months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, the government’s sentencing memo shows. p
White has agreed to give up his private plane, to not renew or use his pilot’s license as part of supervised release and to avoid San Clemente Island, prosecutors wrote in the filing.
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