SAN FRANCISCO—On Monday, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals appeared skeptical about the government’s claim that a California man who fired a laser at an emergency transport ambulance helicopter and then a Fresno Police helicopter deserved his 14-year sentence.

Attorneys believe that this is the highest such sentence ever issued for perpetrating a laser strike. By comparison, a man in New Zealand recently received 12 months of supervision and no prison time for nearly the same offense.

In the court hearing, attorney Carolyn Del Phillips—representing the defendant Sergio Rodriguez—told the court: "This case involves sentencing that is completely astonishing in its unreasonableness."

According to the criminal complaint, on a warm summer evening in late August 2012, Rodriguez took his green laser pointer and fired it at a passing helicopter from outside of his apartment. His apartment complex sat just about a half mile north of the west end of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport in one of the Central Valley’s largest cities.

Unknowingly, the then-24-year-old struck not just any helicopter, but "Air George," an emergency transport ambulance helicopter of Children’s Hospital of Central California. The helicopter was flying from Bakersfield to Fresno with a young patient, two crew members, and a pilot on board.

The pilot informed the airport’s air traffic control, which then relayed it to a nearby police helicopter that was on routine patrol. As the helicopter, formally called Air-1, moved to the reported location north of the airport, it was struck seven times as it circled overhead.

Air-1 next radioed down to the neighboring town of Clovis, which sent patrol cars to an apartment complex. Using Air-1’s spotlight, Fresno’s pilots guided Clovis officers to the north side of the apartment complex so they would not be observed. One Clovis cop, Officer Peters, jumped over a wall and began walking around the area. Peters was quickly informed by a fellow resident that the person "in Apartment #117 is doing it, I saw him."

The Clovis officer knew Rodriguez from previous encounters and recalled that he was out on probation. After a quick search, the cop found the laser. Soon, another Clovis policeman arrived and arrested Rodriguez. During the arrest, his girlfriend, Jennifer Coleman, interrupted and admitted that she fired the laser, but said she did so unintentionally. (She later was sentenced to just two years.)

Rodriguez's unusually strong sentence appears to have been influenced by a litany of previous incidents. He had a prior arrest in April 2011 for trying to open a box of tokens to play video games, possibly while intoxicated. The following year, he was convicted of burglary and a DUI.

So how damaging is it, really?

In May 2015, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found another laser sentencing to be too much. High school student Adam Gardenhire, who pleaded guilty to firing a laser at a small aircraft landing at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California, had initially received a 30 month sentence. Del Phillips cited this case in her arguments.

On behalf of the government, Assistant United States Attorney Michael Tierney argued that the sentence was deserving given that Rodriguez repeatedly fired his laser at both the hospital helicopter and then four times at the orbiting police helicopter after it responded to the incident.

Tierney and his colleagues filed a letter to the court last week saying that the Gardenhire case "has no impact on this Court’s consideration of Rodriguez’s conviction or sentence."

During the 10 minutes of oral argument he had before the court, the prosecutor reiterated what was in his letter.

"[Rodriguez] knew that he was targeting the cockpit. It doesn't take a physicist or someone who is an expert in optics that if you shine a bright light into a person's eyes, that's a very dangerous thing to do," he said. Tierney noted that in order for Rodriguez to repeatedly hit a moving helicopter traveling at 60 miles per hour, 500 feet up, at a distance of about a half mile away, it required a "steady hand" and was "not an easy thing to do."

The judges didn’t seem to be buying it.

"Maybe you can show he tried to shoot the cockpit, but can you show that he had mens rea?" United States Circuit Judge Andrew Hurwitz asked. "What is there to show that he knew or should have known that it would cause the pilot to be unable to fly the helicopter?"

A few moments later, United States Circuit Judge Ronald Silverman approached it from another way.

"Do you think the evidence shows that he was trying to bring down the helicopter?" Tierney demurred: "I’m not sure." Silverman countered: "Do you think he was trying to bring down the helicopter?" "We don’t know," Tierney responded. "The evidence doesn’t show that," Silverman concluded. "I think it’s not different than if he stood on a freeway overpass with a spotlight and shined it on cars," Tierney claimed.

It’s highly unlikely that Rodriguez was attempting to crash the helicopter. Federal data shows that of the 17,725 reported laser strike incidents nationwide from 2005 through 2013, there have been exactly zero serious injuries, much less crashes.

Circling above

After the 30 minute hearing concluded, Ars spoke briefly with both attorneys.

Tierney told us that Rodriguez was offered a plea deal, which often results in two to three years of prison time. Rodriguez rejected this. Still, Tierney observed that the judges may not rule in the government’s favor.

"I think it’s hard to read what they’re thinking," he said, noting that sometimes judges like to play devil’s advocate to provoke clearer argument. "I think they showed some skepticism that a laser can be used to endanger an aircraft and I tried to show them it can."

For her part, Del Phillips pointed out something that she wished she had made clearer in court. The helicopter was struck on its left side as it orbited above Rodriguez—the pilot, however, sits on the right-hand side of the helicopter.

In other words: "If you were going to [try to bring the helicopter down], you would shine it in the front," she told Ars.

UPDATE 10:54am CT: Del Phillips added: "One thing I should mention, Rodriguez’s girlfriend’s sentence was revoked on a joint motion and remanded to the District Court where she was re-sentenced to 5 years of probation."