A third extreme-skydiving enthusiast convicted of reckless endangerment, BASE jumping and other charges after parachuting off of the World Trade Center in September 2013 escaped jail time at his sentencing Monday, authorities say.
Marko Markovich, 28, was sentenced to conditional discharge with 300 hours of community service and a $2,000 fine, more than two months after he was found guilty of the misdemeanors along with 33-year-old James Brady and 34-year-old Andrew Rossig.
Brady, an iron worker who helped construct 1 World Trade Center, and Rossig, were each sentenced earlier this month to conditional discharge with a $2,000 fine and 250 and 200 hours of community service, respectively,
At 3 a.m. on September 30, 2013, the men entered 1 World Trade Center and climbed up 104 flights of stairs to the tower's communication ring, Vance said. They then picked up equipment left by Brady, who worked as an iron worker at the construction site, and parachuted off of the building one by one.
The stunt, captured in a dramatic YouTube video, raised questions about security at the then-unfinished skyscraper.
Prosecutors had asked the men be sentenced to at least 60 days in jail, saying their stunt could have killed a bystander. They said earlier this month it took a "disturbing degree of forethought and planning," and that "at every step they knew what they were doing was wrong."
The parachutists, who were arrested in March 2014 following a joint investigation between the Manhattan District Attorney's office, the NYPD and the Port Authority Police Department, said that they didn't imperil anyone and that the charges were overreaching by embarrassed authorities.
