Decade prison sentence for Utah’s ‘Mountain Man’

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ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) — Troy James Knapp lived for years
in the wilderness of Utah, avoiding people and eating small game he shot
with weapons stolen during cabin break-ins. Sometimes, he’d raid the
pantry and rumple the bed sheets before setting out alone again on
snowshoes with a rifle slung over his shoulder.
For most of the next decade, the man who roamed freely through the woods will live behind bars in a
federal penitentiary.
Knapp,
46, known by many as the "Mountain Man," pleaded guilty Monday to
federal and state weapons charges in an agreement that will likely put
him in federal prison until the end of 2024.
The pleas marked the
end of a mysterious story of the California fugitive, originally from
Michigan, who became a sensation in Utah. For seven years, local
authorities investigated cabin burglaries in southern and central Utah,
before in early 2012 they identified Knapp from cabin surveillance
photos and fingerprints on a Jim Beam whiskey bottle.
Knapp spent
winters holed up in snowbound cabins, and retreated in summers deep into
the woods with a supply of guns, dehydrated food, radios, batteries and
high-end camping gear. Sometimes he left notes taunting authorities.
Other times, he left thank you notes. In Garfield County, he signed a
cabin log book as "Troy James the red head."
In April 2013, he
committed the crime that got him the long federal sentence, shooting at
federal agents in a helicopter when he was flushed from a home near a
mountain reservoir in snowy Manti-LaSal National Forest and captured.
Wearing
ankle shackles, Knapp entered the federal and state pleas on Monday, as
some of those who helped track and capture him looked on. Emery County
Sheriff Greg Funk, who once saw Knapp with a rifle disappear into the
wilderness near his own home in Clawson, described him as personable and
interesting to talk with after he was caught.
Jay Winward, one of Knapp’s attorneys, spoke with respect for a man he got to know over the last six
months as his attorney.
"There
is an admiration for somebody who chooses to live off the land, because
he does it while the rest of us wouldn’t. Even if he needs a little
help from some cabin owners," the defense attorney added.
But
Brody Keisel, the prosecutor, said he saw Knapp as nothing more than "a
common crook" who survived on easy pickings like canned Spaghetti-Os
from cabin break-ins.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Bell noted
that Knapp helped authorities find all 16 weapons that had been
squirreled away in four locations in four different counties. That
included 13 handguns, two rifles and one shotgun, Bell said.
Even
U.S. District Court Judge Ted Stewart in St. George, offered a nod to
Knapp’s fame and the folklore that grew about his solitary
living-off-the-land story.
"The judge told him he should write a
book," said Brody Keisel, Sanpete County attorney and the broker of the
unusually broad and complex plea agreement involving state and federal
cases. "He said, ‘You’ve got plenty of time.’"
Minutes after the
federal sentencing, Knapp entered pleas in Utah state court to crimes in
seven counties — Beaver, Emery, Garfield, Iron, Kane, Sanpete and
Sevier.
He was sentenced to one to 15 years on each of the 10
felony burglary charges, with the state sentences running concurrent
with each other and the federal sentence.
State officials will
determine whether Knapp spends any more time behind bars. But
prosecutors and Knapp’s attorneys said the intent was for Knapp to serve
his entire sentence in federal prison.
Asked by the federal judge if he had anything to say, Knapp said, "No, thank you."
"That will be his last word," Winward said after Knapp was taken away in custody. "’Thank
you.’ And he will live a quiet life."
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McCombs reported from Salt Lake City.

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