NEW YORK, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- A man who spent 40 years as a fugitive in Cuba was sentenced to 15 years in prison Tuesday in New York for his role in a 1968 jetliner hijacking.
Luis Armando Pena Soltren, 68, speaking through an interpreter during his sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court, apologized to the court, his family and the passengers and crew of Pan American Flight 281, The New York Times reported.
Soltren attributed his criminal behavior to "lack of experience, lack of patience and lack of maturity," the newspaper said.
"I beg you to please take into consideration my age today and that I turned myself in voluntarily, completely voluntarily, to justice in this country," he said.
However, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein gave him 15 years without the possibility of parole, ignoring a defense request for no more than four years.
"I try to imagine how I would feel if someone put a knife to my throat or a gun to my back, and I wonder how many nightmares would follow," Hellerstein said. "I wonder even in your private moments with God whether there can ever be enough remorse."
Soltren and two other men hijacked the jetliner bound from New York to Puerto Rico on Nov. 24, 1968, and directed it to Cuba.
His two accomplices had pleaded guilty and served their sentences earlier.
Soltren surrendered to U.S. authorities in 2009 and pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit air piracy, interfering with flight crew members and kidnapping, the Times said.
