[ad_1]
A man was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison on Friday for plotting to bomb a historic Colorado synagogue last year by a judge who described the case as “dripping with Nazism and supremacy.”
Judge Raymond P. Moore sentenced Richard Holzer, 28, to 235 months and sentenced him to 15 years of supervised release.
JUDGE REFUSES TO REDUCE $ 3M OBLIGATION FOR COLORADO ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST CHARGED WITH MURDER FOR RENT LAND
Throughout the sentencing trial, Moore harshly criticized Holzer’s previous statements to FBI agents and undercover social media accounts – describing Holzer’s life as filled with violent and hateful images.
“It is one of the most vulgar, aggressive and perverse crimes that can be committed against an entire group of people,” Moore said.
Holzer’s defense team argued that his suffering from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome influenced his development into adulthood and contributed to his “unmet and overwhelming need to appear bigger than he is” .
The defense asked the judge for a shorter sentence for Holzer in order to receive post-prison rehabilitation for his radical ideas and to have an incentive to prepare for life after incarceration. He also said Holzer no longer had the supremacist beliefs that led him to plan the bombing of the Temple Emanuel synagogue in Pueblo.
The Temple Emanuel plot was one of 61 cases of anti-Semitic harassment and vandalism that the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States region tracked in 2019.
“The idea that he turned a corner is fantasy,” Moore said before listing the swastikas found in his prison cell and the supremacist symbolism in his signed letters from prison.
ALLEGED NEO-NAZIS GUILTY IN COLORADO SYNAGOGUE GROUND
Holzer declined the opportunity to make a statement at his trial.
“About two and a half years ago, my first day as a United States Attorney took me to a vigil for the victims of the attack on the Pittsburgh Tree of Life Synagogue,” said United States Attorney Jason Dunn in a statement. communicated. “Today, my last day in office, we condemned the extremist responsible for the attempted bombing of the Temple Emanuel synagogue in Pueblo.”
In October, Holzer pleaded guilty to attempting to prevent people from practicing their religion with an explosive or fire and attempting to destroy a building used in interstate commerce in the part of a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Holzer was arrested on November 1, 2019, after receiving two fake homemade bombs and 14 sticks of dynamite from undercover FBI agents he planned to use at Temple Emanuel.
An agent posed as a white supremacist and contacted Holzer online after seeing his social media posts promoting white supremacy and violence, according to facts agreed to by both parties as part of the plea agreement.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
After his arrest, Holzer said that “the event scheduled for tonight would define me as a person who dies for his people,” according to a statement from the Colorado attorney’s office.
Temple Emanuel is the second oldest synagogue in Colorado. It was built in 1900 largely by descendants of immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.
[ad_2]
Source link