Utah fugitive pleads guilty in Florida

A former Salt Lake resident who fled the state amid hazardous waste-dumping charges has admitted to armed assault on law enforcement officers, illegally possessing firearms and environmental violations.

Larkin Baggett, 55, appeared in U.S. District Court in Key West, Fla., to plead guilty to possessing eight firearms, including assault rifles, while a fugitive from Utah. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of assault on federal agents and one count of assault on a sheriff's deputy, while using a deadly weapon. He also admitted to violating federal hazardous disposal laws while in Utah.

Baggett is accused of pointing a semiautomatic rifle at a team of five local and federal police officers on March 10 in Florida, forcing them to open fire. Baggett suffered multiple gunshot wounds that left him hospitalized in critical condition. He was released from a hospital last week and booked into jail.

Baggett was to stand trial on the charges Monday. He is now scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 14. He faces a maximum term of up to 10 years in prison on the fugitive possessing a firearm charge and up to 20 years on each of the four assault with a deadly weapon charges. He faces an additional three to five years on the hazardous disposal violations.

Police were searching for Baggett in the Florida Keys because he had fled Utah to avoid a trial on federal environmental charges.

Prosecutors contend Baggett dumped hazardous materials in the sewers outside his Salt Lake truck-wash business, Chemical Consultants Inc. Baggett pleaded not guilty to the charges in September 2007.

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