Bomb-Maker Calls Judge 'Cockroach' During Sentencing Meltdown

ORANGE COUNTY, CA — A man with a history of making terrorist threats was sentenced to 19 years, four months behind bars after being found guilty of carrying explosive-making implements inside his vehicle last fall.

Saleh Ali, who acted as his own attorney, told the judge "You're a cockroach" and directing an anti- Semitic remark at a prosecutor.

In attempting to refute the argument of Deputy Orange County District Attorney Susan Laird, who was urging the judge to impose the maximum sentence, Ali said of Laird, "She seems to be confused ... maybe she has a Jewish background, I don't know."

Laird is not Jewish.

He received the maximum sentence for his crimes, which wasn't enough according to Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer.

Spitzer urged state lawmakers to make possession of bomb-making materials a "serious, violent felony," which would have activated the state's three-strikes law and made Ali eligible for a life sentence.

Brea police discovered Saleh Ali, 48, of Salinas, in possession of bomb-making materials when he was pulled over on a Brea street in September, 2018.

"During the traffic stop, the officer keyed in on a couple of suspicious items in the car he believed to be an explosive device," Brea police Lt. Adam Hawley said then. "He detained the driver out of an abundance of caution, locked down a little bit of the area and called out sheriff's bomb squad deputies."

The bomb squad destroyed the suspected explosive devices at the scene, Hawley said.

Police also alerted the Orange County Intelligence Assessment Center, a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, Hawley said.

Ali, who represented himself in court, was convicted March 4 of two counts each of use of a destructive device with the intent to injure, sale and transportation and possession of a destructive device on a public highway, along with one count of intent to unlawfully make a destructive device.

Ali has two prior convictions in June 2003 in Passaic County, New Jersey, for aggravated assault with serious bodily injury and making terrorist threats, according to court records.