SAN DIEGO (CNS) - A San Diego man who admitted to twice landing a small airplane without permission on a U.S. Navy airstrip on San Clemente Island, then stealing a Navy truck and using it to damage gates on the island, was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison and ordered to pay over $8,000 in restitution.
Andrew Kyle White, 37, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court on Sept. 15 to one felony count of theft of government property in excess of $1,000 and one misdemeanor count of illegal entry into a naval installation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
White has been in federal custody since he cut off an ankle monitoring bracelet earlier this year, prosecutors said.
San Clemente Island is the southernmost of the Channel Islands and is in Los Angeles County. It is owned and operated by the Navy and is part of Naval Base Coronado. According to his plea agreement, White knew it was illegal to access San Clemente Island without prior government approval.
WATCH: 10News reporter Perla Shaheen reported on the arrest earlier in September.
White acknowledged piloting an amateur-built Glastar airplane to San Clemente Island on Oct. 29, 2023, and landing on a Navy airstrip without permission. He was given a letter -- which he signed -- notifying him that it was a federal crime to travel to San Clemente Island without government permission.
Despite that warning, in April of this year, White landed the plane on the island again. While there, he stole a Navy-owned white Ford F-150 truck worth nearly $16,000, according to his plea agreement.
Prosecutors said White admitted driving the pilfered truck to various locations on the island, including some that were blocked by locked gates, which he rammed with the truck, causing more than $8,000 in damages and costs to tow the truck.
Navy officials estimated that White's intrusion onto the base cost nearly 500 man-hours and resulted in a $500,000 loss to taxpayers.
"Whatever (White's) intentions were, the military did not know them; they responded as one might expect the military to respond to an unknown threat: they assumed the worst," federal prosecutors argued in documents filed with the court.
"The island went on a complete lockdown. Personnel engaged in a highly dangerous mission to locate the unknown intruder notwithstanding the dangers they were exposing themselves too, from the weather, the terrain, and the potential unexploded ordnances that could have been underfoot in that area."
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