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A self-proclaimed neo-Nazi and white Colorado supremacist has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison for plotting to blow up a Colorado synagogue, the Justice Department said on Friday.
Richard Holzer, 28, was sentenced to 235 months, which equates to about 19 and a half years, in prison for his plot to attack the Temple Emanuel synagogue in Pueblo, according to the Colorado District Attorney’s Office. Holzer was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release.
Holzer, who was arrested and charged with federal hate crime in 2019, pleaded guilty to his charges in a plea deal last October. He admitted to plainclothes FBI agents at the time he was arrested that he wanted “to do something that would tell the Jews in the community that they are not welcome in Pueblo, and that they should leave or they should go.” will die ”, according to the Ministry of Justice. .
Federal officials said Holzer’s plan to light explosives at the synagogue met the definition of domestic terrorism, although the dynamite and homemade bombs he received from undercover FBI agents were unable to detonate.
“Mr. Holzer has targeted a place of worship for violence and destruction to drive people of the Jewish faith from our community,” Michael Schneider, FBI special agent in charge of the Denver office, said in a statement.
Holzer also made threats of violence on social media and posted a photo of himself pointing a gun and wearing clothing with white supremacist symbols on his Facebook account in 2019.
Colorado District Attorney Jason Dunn said Holzer’s conviction was “another step forward in our continued fight against extremism.”
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