Old fashion way of getting out of paying your book off''''

[WAXER]

Probation Given for Plot to Kill Bookies.


The second in command of a La Costa gang that planned to kill a pair of Carlsbad bookies and a member of their own group who went astray was sentenced Friday to five years probation.

Brian Edward McConnell, 27, pleaded guilty last December to conspiracy to commit kidnapping for his role in the February 2006 plot.

According to court documents and statements by lawyers in the case,McConnell was the right-hand man to the gang's leader, Scott Lee Sepulveda, who placed a $13,000 bet with the bookies on the 2006 NFL Pro Bowl and lost.

Sepulveda held two meetings to determine how to handle the situation,and armed members drove around Carlsbad looking for the bookies, who are twin brothers. However, the wayward member alerted the intended targets and reported the plot to police.

Sepulveda, who Judge K. Michael Kirkman called the most culpable of allthe defendants in the case, pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced to eightyears in state prison.

``This at the very least was an extreme act of immaturity, elements of being misguided, perhaps some machismo on the part of all the actors,'' said the judge.

McConnell was not at the first of the meetings and was looked upon by both the gang and the bookies as a potential peacemaker, said defense attorney Alan Bloom.

However, the judge said he was ``troubled'' by McConnell's statements to a county probation officer, whom he told that he didn't know what would happen if the bookies were discovered.

That was not supported by statements by his co-defendants, the judge said.

McConnell, who is married and has two children, has straightened out his life since he was released on bail in October 2006, according to the lawyers for both sides.

The defendant was ordered to finish a 365-day county jail term, but between time already served and credits, he's expected to only be locked up for another week or two.

Four co-defendants other than Sepulveda have also pleaded guilty.