California gunman sentenced to life in prison without parole for murder in synagogue and arson in mosque

Article content

LOS ANGELES – A man who admitted killing a devotee and wounding three others in a shooting inside a California synagogue about a month after setting fire to a nearby mosque was sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Article content

John T. Earnest, 22, pleaded guilty in July to a single count of murder, three counts of attempted murder, and one count of arson at a place of worship, in a settlement with local prosecutors to avoid possibly facing him. the death penalty.

The defendant was sentenced in a San Diego court to life in prison less than two weeks after pleading guilty to federal hate crime charges stemming from the same two attacks in 2019.

He faces an additional life in prison when he is sentenced in the federal case in US District Court on Dec. 28.

Earnest opened fire with an assault rifle at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, north of San Diego, on April 27, 2019, during prayers on Saturday, the last day of the Jewish holiday of Passover. He was 19 at the time.

Article content

A 60-year-old congregation member, Lori Gilbert-Kaye, was killed and three others were injured in the attack, including the rabbi, who was shot in the hand and lost an index finger.

After the gunman’s gun apparently jammed, a former army sergeant in the congregation chased him from the temple and sped away in a car, escaping from a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

Later, Earnest stopped at a mall, called 911 to report that he had committed the shooting, and waited for police to arrive to arrest him.

Later, authorities identified Earnest as the author of an anti-Muslim, violently anti-Semitic and erratic manifesto that was found posted online under his name minutes before the shooting began.

Article content

He claimed in the post that he had planned the synagogue uproar for months and claimed responsibility for a pre-dawn arson that damaged the Islamic Center in Escondido, a nearby city, although no one was injured in the blaze.

Earnest also claimed in the letter that he was inspired by the gunman who killed 50 people in two mosques in New Zealand at the time, referring to a shooting that claimed 11 lives the previous October at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

San Diego County Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh denied Earnest the opportunity to address the court, as is customary prior to sentencing, to avoid providing “a political forum for him to begin making white supremacist statements. or racist, “said the Los Angeles City News Service. (CNS) reported.

Several of Gilbert-Kaye’s loved ones spoke during the hearing, including her daughter, Hannah Kaye, who called white supremacy “an epidemic that thrives across the country and abroad,” according to CNS.