Discovery Channel gunman prosecuted here for alien smuggling

Lee, slain after standoff in Maryland, was sentenced to 18 months in prison

By Kristina Davis, UNION-TRIBUNE
Greg Moran, UNION-TRIBUNE

Originally published September 1, 2010 at 8:34 p.m.
updated September 2, 2010 at 1:51 p.m.


Records in U.S. District Court in San Diego show that a James Jae Lee was sentenced in August 2003 to 18 months in federal prison for trying to smuggle an illegal immigrant in a hidden compartment in a car through the San Ysidro Port of Entry.

The gunman who stormed the Discovery Channel building in Maryland on Wednesday and was shot to death following a four-hour hostage standoff with police wrote a San Diego federal judge seven years ago that he was a loner whose life was “a nightmare.â€