American Mumbai plotter sentenced

CHICAGO -- Minutes before an American was sentenced to 35 years in prison for helping plan a deadly attack on Mumbai, India, one of his victims tearfully pleaded for a harsh punishment despite the terrorist plotter's widespread cooperation with U.S. investigators following his arrest.

David Coleman Headley, 52, shifted uncomfortably in a gray tracksuit and kept his eyes fixed on the Chicago courtroom floor yesterday as he listened to the American children's author describe the violent chaos during her 2008 vacation to India.

Bullets flew past her cheek and panicked diners dived under tables as gunmen burst into a hotel restaurant then walked around executing people one by one, recalled Linda Ragsdale, at times almost shouting as she stood just a few feet from Headley during the sentencing hearing. More than 160 people died in the attack, including children.

"I know the sweet sickening smell of gunfire and blood," said Ragsdale, 53, of Nashville, Tenn., who was shot through the back. "I know what a bullet can do to every part of the human body . . . These are things I never needed to know, never needed to experience."

Others victimized by the attack that has been called India's 9/11 said they were disturbed and upset Headley did not get the maximum life sentence he faced. With credit for good behavior, he could walk out of prison before he turns 80.

"He lost his right to live life as a free man," said Kia Scherr, whose husband Alan Scherr and 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, were at the same table as Ragsdale and died.

It was prosecutors who pressed for leniency, saying they wanted Headley to get no more than 35 years as credit for his almost immediate cooperation after his 2009 arrest and providing intelligence about terror networks, including the Pakistani-based group that mounted the attack. -- AP