TORONTO, June 12 (UPI) -- A U.S. citizen and former member of a Black Panther splinter group was sentenced to five years in prison for hijacking an Air Canada plane and forcing the crew to fly to Cuba more than 30 year ago.
Patrick Dolan Critton, 54, was arrested in Mt. Vernon, N.Y., on Sept. 8, after Canadian police tracked him down in an Internet search and sought assistance from the FBI to confirm his identity.
Using his own name at the time of his arrest, Critton was working as a computer science instructor at a local high school and as a social worker at a local jail. He was escorted to Toronto by Canadian officers, after waiving extradition proceedings.
H was charged in Canada with the Dec. 26, 1971,hijacking of an Air Canada DC-9 while on a flight from Thunder Bay, Ontario, to Toronto. He was also charged with kidnapping, armed robbery and extortion. The 1971 incident was the only successful hijacking in Canadian history.
At his trial in an Ontario court, Critton pleaded guilty and won sympathy by waiving bail, a preliminary hearing and other legal loopholes.
On Wednesday, Justice Casey Hill sentenced him to five years in prison, rejecting the prosecutor's recommendation for a sentence of 10 to 12 years.
The judge cited Critton's non-violent nature and other extenuating circumstances, including the fact that he had had a very difficult childhood, had turned his life around after the hijacking, and had devoted himself to improving the lives of children in Africa and in the United States, to which he returned in 1994.
During the 1971 hijacking, Critton allowed the passengers to disembark in Toronto without being aware that the plane was being hijacked. He ordered the pilot to Havana, but was never violent during the incident, and engaged flight attendants in a friendly conversation, while sitting on a grenade. He even fell asleep during the flight.
The judge recommended an accelerated parole and took two years off the sentence as time served before the trial.
Critton's lawyer, Irving Andre, said his client would have been eligible for parole after serving one-third of his sentence, but accelerated parole meant he would serve only one-sixth of the sentence. Critton could be out of prison in a few months, Andre said, but he had not been able to calculate how much time he would serve.
Prosecutor Peter Saltmarsh said he was still concerned about the safety of air travelers, even though the offense took place 30 years ago. Nevertheless, he said he could not argue with the reasoning behind the judge's decision. Saltmarsh indicated he would not appeal the sentence.
Born in Harlem, N.Y., Critton had violent childhood in a neighborhood where crime and drug abuse was rampant. His father died of a drug overdose and his younger brother was shot to death.
Critton later joined a splinter group of the Black Panthers calling itself the Republic of New Africa. The group carried out several armed bank robberies in the United States.
After the 1971 hijacking, Critton was arrested in Cuba and remained in custody for a few months, but was released as the Canada-Cuba extradition treaty did not at the time include hijack suspects.
He later flew to Tanzania, where he spent 20 years working as a teacher. In Tanzania he remarried and had two children, but returned to the United States at the urging of his African wife. He used his own name and his social security card to obtain a U.S. passport.
It was not immediately clear whether he would serve his sentence in Canada or in the United States, but in any event, he is to be deported.
