A Chippewa County judge called it a premeditated, ambush-style attack built to lure officers into a kill zone
A Florida man who set four Michigan State Police cruisers on fire outside the Sault Ste. Marie post, then opened fire on the troopers sent to find him, is going to prison for a very long time.
James Itani, 41, of Orlando, was sentenced in Chippewa County Circuit Court to 25 to 40 years.
He will not be eligible for parole until he has served at least 25 of them.
It started around 3 a.m. on September 6, 2023. Court records say Itani drove straight into the driveway of the state police post armed with gasoline and firearms.
He doused four marked patrol vehicles, set them ablaze, and then fired a rifle at the burning cruisers and toward the post building itself.
All four cruisers were destroyed. The damage came to nearly $190,000.
Then he was gone, and a manhunt was on. Sault Ste. Marie Area Public Schools locked their doors from the outside while troopers searched for an armed man last seen in camouflage.
A tip from a community member, combined with surveillance footage, led police to a home on Riverside Drive the next afternoon.
When the Michigan State Police Emergency Support Team moved in to serve a search warrant and ordered him out, officials say Itani opened fire again.
Investigators reported that some of the rounds came within feet of the officers positioned around the house.
Troopers returned fire and hit him. He was hospitalized. No officers were hurt.
This was a far cry from the kind of cases U.P. troopers usually handle, like the drug-smuggling operation they quietly broke up at the Newberry prison. This was something else entirely.
Itani was originally charged with 17 counts, including terrorism, third-degree arson, and 11 counts of assault with intent to murder. His bond was set at $5 million.
In January, he pleaded no contest to three of those charges. The rest were dismissed as part of the deal.
Prosecutors pushed hard for a sentence well above the state guidelines, and they were blunt about why.
“This was not impulsive vandalism; it was a planned, targeted attack on law enforcement infrastructure, designed to draw officers into a position where they could be killed,” said Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Kristin M. Giommi.
The judge agreed, and went past the guidelines to do it.
“This case is more than a standard act of terrorism,” said Chippewa County Circuit Court Judge James P. Lambros. “It involves deliberate, premeditated targeting of law enforcement, sustained use of deadly force, extreme risk to multiple individuals, and substantial destruction of critical public safety resources.”
Itani’s recommended guideline range had topped out at about 18 years and nine months. The court handed him 25 to 40.
Chippewa County Prosecutor Robert L. Stratton said the punishment fit the crime.
“The sentence imposed today reflects the seriousness of that conduct and the need to protect our community,” Stratton said.
To this day, his motive has never been made public.
For a case that put U.P. troopers in the crosshairs twice in two days, the ending is about as solid as it gets. Twenty-five years, minimum, before James Itani sees a parole board.
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Topics: Sault Ste. Marie, Chippewa County, Michigan State Police, crime, terrorism, arson, Upper Peninsula, courts
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