Man pleads guilty to buying rifles in San Bernardino attack
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — A California man who bought high-powered rifles used in the San Bernardino terror attack pleaded guilty on Thursday as the father of one of the victims angrily denounced the plea deal as a “slap on the wrist.”
Enrique Marquez Jr. appeared in federal court in Riverside with his hands cuffed and chained to his waist. He sounded choked up after the prosecutor described what he had done.
Marquez told the judge he had dropped out of high school and college but understood the allegations and the consequences of the plea agreement with prosecutors that could bring him up to 25 years in prison while sparing him a trial.
Gregory Clayborn, the father of one of the people killed, opposed the deal in an impassioned plea to the judge before the hearing.