Furrow Sentenced

Buford O. Furrow Jr. was sentenced Monday to life in federal prison in an intensely emotional court hearing, during which relatives of a slain postal worker and of five persons wounded in a shooting spree at a Jewish center angrily confronted the self-avowed white supremacist.

The once swaggering Furrow, 39, who was spared a possible death sentence due to a history of mental illness, appeared pale and docile as he read a statement in which he said, “I think about what happened every day, and I will grieve for it every day for the rest of my life.”

He also declared, “I do not harbor ill feelings toward people of any race, creed, color or sexual orientation.”

The contrite courtroom assertion was in sharp contrast to his initial statement to FBI agents that spraying 70 bullets at children and workers at the North Valley Jewish Community Center was “a wake-up call to America to kill Jews.”

A longtime member of the racist and anti-Semitic Aryan Nations, Furrow followed up his shooting spree at the Jewish center on Aug. 10, 1999, with the cold-blooded murder of Filipino-American mailman Joseph Ileto, because, Furrow said, he was angered at the sight of a non-white federal employee.

Before U.S. District Judge Nora M. Manella sentenced Furrow to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 110 years, his victims and their relatives vented their grief and anger during a wrenching 80-minute session.

“I feel deep inside that [Furrow] knows the difference between right and wrong,” said Ileto’s mother, Lillian. “When he killed my son, he also killed part of me. My son was gunned down like an animal.”

Perhaps the most agonizing testimony came from Mindy Finkelstein, who was a 16-year-old counselor at the Jewish center when Furrow shot and wounded her.

Through sobs, Finkelstein told Furrow that he had sent her to “hell and back,” adding “Buford Furrow tried to kill me and he failed. But in a way he succeeded.”

Later, Finkelstein told The Jewish Journal that she had been in and out of hospitals and had dropped out of college because of the psychological after-effects of the shooting. “This will be with me for the rest of my life,” she said.

During the court session, Donna Finkelstein, Wendy’s mother, told Furrow, “You stole my daughter’s innocence just because she’s Jewish, but you didn’t take away her bravery or her ethnic pride.”

Loren Lieb, whose then 6-year-old son, Joshua Stepakoff, was among three young boys wounded in the shooting, said, “His innocence was taken away from him that day and cannot be restored. He saw Buford Furrow shooting at him and did his best to run away, even though his leg was broken by a bullet. The scar on his leg is a reminder of this gun-crazed culture.”

Gail Powers, whose son was also at the Jewish center but escaped injury, angrily addressed Furrow. “I do not understand how you shoot people you do not know,” she said. “You, Mr. Furrow, are a coward.”

Several speakers told Judge Manella that they wished Furrow had received the death penalty. David Finkelstein, Mindy’s father, said he told prosecutors, “I’d like to kill him myself.”

In pronouncing sentence, Manella said that Furrow’s deeds were a “stark and brutal reminder that bigotry is alive, if not well,” in America.

She also ordered Furrow to pay $690,294 in restitution. While Furrow is now indigent, if he ever makes any money by selling a book or the rights to a movie about his life, the funds could be seized.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center was an initial target of Furrow’s, along with the Skirball Cultural Center and the University of Judaism.

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Wiesenthal Center, attended the court sessions as an observer.

“Because Furrow admitted his guilt and because he did not receive the death penalty, he will at least not become the poster boy and martyr for hate groups,” Cooper said.

“I wish those who do not believe that there are hate crimes had been in the courtroom, to see how hate can infect an entire community,” he added.

David Lehrer, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said, “Justice has been served — a clear message has been sent that the commission of hate crimes will result in conviction and a severe penalty.”