A federal judge sentenced attempted Southwest Plaza mall bomber Earl Albert Moore to life in prison today, telling Moore emphatically, “your lifetime of crime is over.”

Moore pleaded guilty to placing a failed explosive device in a mall hallway last April 20, on the 12th anniversary of the Columbine High School tragedy. Moore also set a fire in the hallway, but the bomb did not explode. No one was injured, and Moore said during sentencing today that he wasn’t trying to do so.

“It was never my intention to hurt anybody,” Moore told Kane. “I apologize for my actions.”

Senior U.S. District Court Judge John Kane said Moore’s crime was still gravely serious, noting that bombs are “the seeds of terror.”

“I think we’re all grateful that no one was killed,” Kane told Moore. “But that is not to your credit.”

In handing down the maximum sentence, Kane rejected Moore’s lawyer’s request for a 30-year sentence, the lowest Kane could impose by law for the charge Moore admitted to. Defense attorney Robert Pepin said Moore — 66 years old and suffering from prostate cancer and Hepatitis C — would be over 90 by the time he could be released. Even with a 30-year sentence, Pepin said, Moore would likely die behind bars.

“A sentence that could allow him at some point to go tottering out of prison and, for a moment, breathe free air, somehow it seems right,” Pepin said.

Kane, though, was in no mood for lenience. Given Moore’s criminal history — his record includes nine felonies for robbery, weapons charges, parole violations and other offenses — Kane said he needed to protect the public.

“I can’t go on some hope for the future that you will be too old to commit crime,” Kane said. “You’re too old to commit crime now.”

The incident, which occurred just down the road from Columbine High, sparked worry across the metro area and a manhunt that ended when Moore was caught at a Boulder King Soopers six days later.

Moore told investigators he didn’t realize he had placed the device on the Columbine anniversary.

Moore had been out of prison for only about a week — following a bank robbery conviction — when he placed the device. Investigators identified him as a suspect through DNA evidence left at the crime scene.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com