Prosecutors say a 21-year-old Florida man has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison for firebombing a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022.

A 21-year-old Florida man was sentenced Monday to three and a half years in prison for firebombing a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022, federal prosecutors said.

Xavier Batten pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of possessing an unregistered destructive device and one misdemeanor count of intentionally damaging a reproductive health services facility.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney also sentenced Batten, of Brooksville, Florida, to three years of probation and ordered him to pay $1,000 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Carney said Batten had committed a “cowardly crime” that showed “no empathy for women and their rights,” according to the statement. He has been in federal custody since July 2023.

  • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    121·
    6 months ago

    The only thing I can see going for this guy was that he wasn’t actually caught on camera doing the attack, but this maps on to the “terrorist bombmaker” role in a terror cell.

    Batten helped and conspired with Brannon to firebomb the clinic with a Molotov cocktail from February through March 13, 2022, according to his plea agreement.

    Brannon and Ergul put together the Molotov cocktail about March 12, 2022, in Ergul’s garage, prosecutors alleged. Batten coached Brannon how to construct the fiery device, prosecutors said.

    Brannon and Ergul ignited the device on March 13, 2022, and hurled it at the clinic’s entrance, sparking a fire, prosecutors alleged.

    In May 2022, Batten discussed with Brannon about what it would take to bomb another clinic, prosecutors alleged in Brannon’s plea agreement.

    https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/news/story/2024-01-19/florida-man-takes-plea-deal-in-the-firebombing-of-the-costa-mesa-planned-parenthood