Ex-Oklahoma Bombing Suspect Pleads Guilty to Resisting Arrest

A UCLA graduate once briefly considered a suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing pleaded guilty in Los Angeles on Monday to a charge that he resisted arrest by a federal officer.

The case against Steven Garrett Colbern, 35, stemmed from a May 12 encounter in Arizona.

U.S. marshals discovered a .22-caliber revolver on him during the arrest, but federal prosecutors agreed to drop a firearm charge in exchange for the guilty plea.

Colbern could get up to a year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 for resisting arrest. Prosecutors said Colbern reached for the revolver in his front pocket and struggled with federal marshals when they tried to arrest him. One marshal suffered a minor head injury, attorneys said.

Colbern was arrested in the former gold-mining town of Oatman for questioning about the April 19 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building but was not charged in that case.

The former Oxnard resident failed to appear for a trial in Los Angeles in October, 1994, and was considered a fugitive at the time of his arrest in Arizona.

Colbern, who once worked at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, also was arrested July 20, 1994, after Upland police found a knife and silencer in his car during a traffic stop, prosecutors said.