American To Plead Guilty In '84 Cuba Jet Hijacking
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami/AP) —An American who returned from Cuba decades after allegedly hijacking a jetliner coming to Miami is set to plead to a kidnapping charge.
A change of plea hearing is set for Thursday in South Florida Federal court for 57-year-old William Potts, who said he returned last year from Cuba to finally resolve the 30-year-old U.S. case.
The kidnapping count replaces a previous charge of air piracy, which carried a mandatory prison sentence of at least 20 years. Potts is seeking credit for 13 years he served in a Cuban prison. He still faces a maximum life sentence.
The FBI said Potts claimed he had explosives when he hijacked a New York-to-Miami flight and diverted it to Havana in 1984. He described himself then as a black militant calling himself "Lt. Spartacus."
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