Lookout For One World Trade Center BASE Jumpers Gets Community Service
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A man who acted as a lookout for three others who BASE jumped from One World Trade Center in 2013 was sentenced to community service Thursday.
Kyle Hartwell did not jump from the top of the skyscraper with the others in September 2013. But he acted as a lookout for the three men who did -- James Brady, 33, Marko Markovich, 28, and Andrew Rossig, 28. He faced the same burglary and reckless endangerment charges as the others.
As WCBS 880's Irene Cornell reported, Hartwell had made a deal to testify as a prosecution witness against the other three to avoid a possible felony conviction.
But all penalties were not dropped. Hartwell must spend his summer doing 100 hours of community service in the city.
Brady, Markovich and Rossig were convicted last week of reckless endangerment and BASE jumping – both misdemeanors -- but were acquitted of more serious felony burglary charges.
They had admitted to leaping from the building, but insisted they did not put the public in danger because they were experienced jumpers. Prosecutors charged them with burglary, saying they entered a building illegally with an intention to commit another crime: parachuting from the skyscraper.
Authorities said Markovich, Brady and Rossig squeezed through a hole in a fence and climbed 104 flights of stairs. The three spent about four hours enjoying the views before taking what they portrayed as a careful, 3 a.m. plunge by experienced jumpers over deserted streets.
A video of the jump was posted on YouTube, and surveillance video captured the jumpers landing in front of the Goldman Sachs building.
Brady and Rossig are expected to be sentenced Aug. 10, and Markovich on Aug. 17. They each face up to a year in jail.