UC Berkeley Firebombing Suspect Reaches Plea Deal on Federal Arson Charge

Updated 3:05 p.m. Wednesday

The person accused of firebombing a UC Berkeley police vehicle this year has reached a plea deal, according to court documents filed late Tuesday.

Casey Robert Goonan, 34, previously pleaded not guilty after being indicted by a federal grand jury in July on two arson charges and a third for possession of an unregistered firearm.

U.S. Senior District Judge Jeffrey White ordered that Goonan appear for a change of plea hearing next month after defense lawyers and the U.S. attorney’s office filed a joint status report Tuesday saying Goonan had agreed to plead guilty to one of the charges. Goonan will plead guilty to damaging property used in or affecting interstate commerce by fire, in exchange for dropping the other two charges.

Goonan is accused of lighting Molotov cocktails under the university police vehicle in June, as protests over the war in Gaza took hold of UC Berkeley’s campus and others throughout the country. They were arrested on June 17 in connection with four arson attacks — including the firebombing of the vehicle — that took place at UC Berkeley that month. Before Goonan’s arrest, anonymous pro-Palestinian activists took credit for the incidents on social media.

Tuesday’s report also indicates that the parties expect Goonan to admit to involvement in other “arsons and attacks,” including one on the Oakland federal building that also occurred in June,  as part of their change in plea.

Initially, Goonan faced state charges in Alameda County before federal prosecutors took over the case.

In an affidavit unsealed ahead of the grand jury hearing, FBI special agent Tiffany Speirs said she had probable cause to believe that Goonan “used several destructive devices — Molotov cocktails — to damage and destroy a parked University of California Police Department vehicle.”

Security footage showed a person matching Goonan’s description exiting the passenger side of a car that had a license plate associated with them. They set down a reusable shopping bag — which was later found to have six Molotov cocktails in it — under the fuel tank area of a marked UCPD vehicle, Speirs said.

Shortly afterward, a witness reported seeing a person use a “blow torch style lighter” to ignite an object near the rear tire of a police vehicle, and days later, the vehicle the suspect exited was found outside Goonan’s mother’s home in Pleasant Hill.

The criminal complaint also alleges that Goonan later returned to document the aftermath, posting the photos online with the headline “Student Intifada.”

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on the deal.

The order filed Tuesday vacates Goonan’s status hearing next week and sets their change of plea hearing for Jan. 14.