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Kopp accomplices plead guilty

From Phil Hirschkorn
CNN New York Bureau

James Kopp was convicted last month in the shooting death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an obstetrician-gynecologist who also performed abortions.
James Kopp was convicted last month in the shooting death of Dr. Barnett Slepian, an obstetrician-gynecologist who also performed abortions.

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NEW YORK (CNN) -- A Brooklyn couple faces up to five years in prison for helping fellow anti-abortion activist James Kopp elude capture after he murdered an abortion provider in 1998.

Loretta Marra, 39, and Dennis Malvasi, 53, pleaded guilty Tuesday to the federal charge of conspiracy to harbor a known fugitive, Kopp, after he killed obstetrician-gynecologist Dr. Barnett Slepian inside his suburban Buffalo home.

Kopp was convicted in state court of the sniper-style shooting last month.

After Kopp fled the country to live incognito in Mexico, Ireland and France, Marra and Malvasi sent him money and advice via e-mail, and plotted with him his secret return to the United States.

By tracking the couple's correspondence, the FBI discovered they were sending Kopp a package in Dinan, France, in March 2001. Agents tipped off French police, who arrested Kopp at the post office in the northwestern French town. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The plea agreement does not specify a prison term, but prosecutor Peter Katz said the government will be asking for a four- to five-year sentence. Attorneys Thomas Eoannou and Bruce Barket said they are seeking to reduced the sentence to as little as time served for Marra and Malvasi, who have already spent two years behind bars.

The defense attorneys said Marra and Malvasi sought some leniency for persuading Kopp not to fight his extradition and to admit in a pre-trial jailhouse interview that he shot Slepian. "He certainly would still be in France if not for Loretta and Dennis," Barket said.

France held Kopp for 14 months, returning him to the United States only after receiving assurances that he would not face the death penalty, which France has abolished.

Last year, the couple gave the government a deposition saying they could not provide Kopp an alibi, which aided Buffalo prosecutors, Barket said.

Kopp is to be sentenced May 9 in Buffalo, and faces a maximum of life in prison.

"Marra and Malvasi went to great lengths to harbor and aid Kopp while he was on the run from this charge throughout Europe and North America," U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said. "These defendants are being held accountable for their roles in this conspiracy to evade justice." U.S. District Judge Carol Bagley Amon scheduled their sentencing for July 11.

The couple is not expected to testify in a pending federal trial against Kopp.


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