SAN JOSE – Richard Tillman, the brother of a late war hero and San Jose NFL star, pleaded guilty in court Monday to using his car to detonate a bomb at a South San Jose post office last summer.
Tillman, 44, entered his plea — reached in a plea deal with federal prosecutors — in the San Jose courtroom of US District Court Judge Edward Davila. He faces up to five years in prison.
His exact sentence will not be determined or issued until a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 27. The charge Tillman pleaded guilty to – arson – carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
In court, Tillman was happy and talking to his public defender, Varell Fuller, before pleading guilty.
Dressed in a dark green jumpsuit from the Elmwood County Men’s Prison in Milpitas, he was upbeat as he answered Davila’s questions confirming Tillman’s guilty plea.
He replied, “guilty, sir” when Davila asked him to confirm his request.
Tillman was originally expected to plead guilty on January 12, but at the last minute, another attorney was appointed as counsel, and the hearing was postponed. He was initially indicted in Santa Clara County Superior Court a few days after the July 20 arson attack at the Almaden Valley post office on Crown Boulevard, but on Aug. 7, federal prosecutors received a similar indictment for the same crime.
On August 25, with the local case suspended for Tillman’s competency hearing, county prosecutors asked for their charges to be dismissed and cleared the way for a federal trial.
The federal complaint against Tillman, written by US Postal Inspector Shannon Roark, recalled the initial investigation by the San Jose police and fire department, in which Roark wrote that Tillman bought “insta-logs” and lighter fluid at a nearby supermarket and, while live-streaming on YouTube, drove his car into the post office. He then set fire to the logs that were doused with light water and scattered throughout the car.
It is said that he also sprayed paint saying “VIVA LA ME” outside the post, “but he did not finish what he wanted to write because the heat of the fire was intense,” said the complaint.
Tillman was still streaming the video shortly before he was arrested on site by a San Jose police officer.
In explaining Tillman’s claim, Davila stated that the post office suffered an estimated $2.67 million in damages; State prosecutor Michael Pitman later added that the lobby, where the car had passed and which was the fire station, was completely destroyed.
Tillman insisted on assuring Davila that he understood the consequences of his request; during his trial in the Supreme Court, he contested the suggestion that his mental health was questionable.
The arson case drew a lot of attention because of his relationship with his brother Pat Tillman, a star Leland High School star who played safety for the Arizona Cardinals before leaving the National Football League in 2002 to join his brother Kevin in the Iraq war after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Pat Tillman served in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, trained as an Army Ranger, and was deployed to Afghanistan. in 2004. During the fire there, he was attacked by friendly fire and killed on April 22, 2004.
Richard Tillman gained notoriety after he made abusive and hateful remarks at his brother’s funeral, and in the years that followed he created a persona in YouTube videos where he claimed to be the son of God for the purpose of overthrowing the government. After the attack on the post office, his family released a statement describing him as suffering from “severe mental health issues” and that “getting proper care and support has proven very difficult – or rather, impossible.”
Family members who attended Monday’s hearing declined to comment afterward.
