Man who attempted to bomb MLK parade to be sentenced Tuesday

(CBS/AP) SPOKANE, Washington -Thirty-seven-year-old Kevin Harpham will be sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to federal charges that he planted a bomb intended to hurl poison-laced shrapnel into marchers at a 2011 Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.

Harpham, known to have ties to white supremacists, faces a sentence range of 27 to 32 years in prison after reaching a deal with prosecutors in September.

Harpham told U.S. District Court Judge Justin Quackenbush in September that he placed the device - a pipe bomb loaded with fishing weights coated in rat poison, which inhibits blood clotting in wounds - along the downtown parade route in attempt to commit a hate crime.

Officials said the bomb was discovered and disabled before it could explode. 2,000 adults and children were present for the parade in January. The parade was forced down an alternate route after the bomb was found.

Prosecutors said Harpham acted alone, and was arrested in March at his rural home.

Harpham accepted a plea deal that charged him with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, and the hate crime of placing the bomb in an effort to target minorities.

Harpham is an Army veteran. He has no prior record of past crimes, but the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, has said Harpham has made more than 1,000 posts on a white supremacist website. He supposedly belongs to a neo-Nazi group.

Complete coverage of the MLK parade plot on Crimesider