A neo-Nazi former U.S. marine who firebombed a Planned Parenthood clinic in California in an act of “hateful extremism” — and planned attacks on a LGBT event and on Jewish families — was sentenced to 9 years in federal prison on Monday.
District Judge Cormac J. Carney said that Chance Brannon, 24, “engaged in cruel and indefensible domestic terrorism” while stationed at Camp Pendleton,
Brannon pleaded guilty in November last year to one count of conspiracy, one of malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives for the clinic attack in 2022, and one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device.
Brannon, from San Juan Capistrano, was also told to pay $1,000 in restitution. He has been in federal custody since he was arrested and charged in 2023.
Mehtab Syed, acting assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said that law enforcement efforts prevented more acts of domestic terrorism.
“Mr. Brannon’s deep-rooted hatred and extremist views inspired him to target individuals or groups who did not conform to his neo-Nazi worldview and, in one case, led him to carry out a violent attack which could have killed innocent people,” he said.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said the Molotov cocktail attack on the Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa was part of a “hate-fueled agenda” and “was designed to terrorize patients seeking reproductive healthcare and the people who provide it.”
Brannon and two co-defendants — Tibet Ergul, 22, and Xavier Batten, 21, — conspired to use a Molotov cocktail to destroy a commercial property, The United States Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
“Brannon considered various targets, including the Anti-Defamation League office in San Diego, but ultimately chose to target a Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa to scare pregnant women, deter doctors and staff from providing abortion services, and encourage similar violent acts,” the statement said.
In the Planned Parenthood attack in March 2022, the clinic’s entrance was set alight by Brannon and Ergul, but no one was hurt. The pair returned hours later to review their work, the attorney’s office said. Around 30 appointments at the clinic had to be rescheduled.
In a sentencing memorandum, the government said Brannon praised Adolf Hitler and told fellow Marines that “all Jews deserve to die. He “took matters into his own hands, weaponizing fear and intimidation to achieve his political ends,” it said.
Then in June 2022, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe. Vs Wade, ending 50 years of constitutional access to abortion services, the court heard that Brannon and Ergul planned a second attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic — which was abandoned due to increased police presence at abortion centers.
The pair also “discussed starting a race war by attacking an electrical substation” and taking out the power grid of Orange County, the attorney’s office said. “Can we just be done with elections and have the race war already,” he texted a friend, the sentencing memorandum said.
A file containing a plan for this and list of gear required was kept on a thumb drive disguised as a military-style necklace, the statement said.
On that gear list was a rifle with “Total [N-word] Death” written in Cyrillic and a recording of the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, in which a white supremacist terrorist murdered 51 people and injured dozens more. The Christchurch attack has since provided inspiration for multiple white nationalist terror plots.
In summer 2023, Brannon and Ergul also discussed attacking Dodger Stadium in LA on the night it celebrated LGBTQ pride — they were arrested two days before the event.
Also before his arrest, Brannon was planning to rob Jewish households in Hollywood Hills, actions that prosecutors said “would at worst harm or even kill real victims.” At the time of his arrest, Brannon possessed a short-barreled rifle and two silencers, which he had not registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
Battan and Ergul separately pleaded guilty to their charges earlier this year and will have their own sentencing hearings on May 13 and May 30 respectively.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com