Feds won't retry Waters in UW ecoterror fire

Briana Waters, holding her daughter, is seen in a March 30, 2006 file photo. (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Joshua Trujillo, File)

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Story Published: Mar 27, 2008 at 1:50 PM PDT

Story Updated: Mar 27, 2008 at 4:16 PM PDT

By GENE JOHNSON, AP Legal Affairs Writer

SEATTLE (AP) - Federal prosecutors have agreed not to retry Briana Waters on a charge that could send her to prison for an automatic 30 years.

Waters was convicted this month on two counts of arson in connection with an ecoterror fire that destroyed the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001. But the jury deadlocked on three other counts, including the big one, using a destructive device during a crime of violence. That carried a mandatory minimum of 30 years in prison.

In an agreement signed Thursday, the U.S. attorney's office in Seattle agreed that it won't hold a new trial on the deadlocked counts. In exchange, Waters agreed that if a federal appeals court overturns her conviction, the government can retry her on all charges - even if the statute of limitations has run.

Waters faces five to 20 years when she's sentenced in May.

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