UKIAH, Calif. – A defendant who planted a pipe bomb under the kitchen sink in an attempt to inflict injury on his wife in August was committed to California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Wednesday by the Mendocino County Superior Court.

Gerald Richard Orth, age 63, formerly of Ukiah, was sentenced to seven years in state prison, a sentence from his January conviction by plea of attempting to explode a destructive device with intent to wrongfully injure another person, a felony, according to the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office.

Because Orth also admitted a prior felony conviction for a forcible rape that occurred in 1982 in Lake County, a “strike” under the current version of the Three Strikes law, his sentence was doubled to 14 years, officials said.

A strike conviction also limits the good time/work time credits an inmate may be able to earn in state prison to no more than 20 percent – versus the default 50 percent – of the overall sentence.

The prosecutor who has been directing the prosecution of this defendant is Deputy District Attorney Scott McMenomey.

The investigating law enforcement agencies that gathered the necessary evidence to convict were the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Bomb Squad and the Fresno Police Department.

Mendocino County Superior Court Judge John Behnke imposed the state prison sentence after considering the Adult Probation Department's sentencing recommendation and listening to sentencing arguments presented by the attorneys.