Biography
House painter and brother of Kathleen Soliah, a member of the SLA's second formation and a roommate of Michael Bortin. Captured with the Harrises, Patty Hearst and Wendy Yoshimura on September 18, 1975 and indicted in 1976 for the Carmichael bank robbery and the Opsahl killing. Acquitted at his federal bank-robbery trial in 1976 after an alibi witness testified he was with her in San Francisco at the time. Never re-charged with the Opsahl killing in 2002 because of double-jeopardy from the federal acquittal.
The March1976 trial notice identifies the pending Carmichael bank-robbery prosecution, a denied venue change following a defense prejudice survey, and a scheduled March8 trial in Sacramento. Its account groups his September18 arrest with those of Hearst, the Harrises and Yoshimura; it supplies no additional actual custody endpoint beyond the existing arrest and later acquittal. Page26. Source: https://freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC514_scans/SLA%20Dragon/514.SLA.Dragon7.Febmarch1976.Periodical.pdf
The Sacramento report says a federal jury acquitted Soliah after six-and-a-half hours of deliberation. He subsequently appeared at a hotel press conference. Judge Philip Wilkins presided. The harboring charges had been dismissed when the robbery count was filed; prosecutors had not said whether they would refile them. EmilyToback’s challenged alibi and an unfiled possible perjury case are not convictions. The life term was a possible consequence of conviction, not punishment imposed on Soliah.
