New Mexico
Man charged with supporting Islamic State group
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico man has been arrested and charged with trying to provide material support to the Islamic State group and shutting down an online platform that could have tied two other men to similar charges.
Herman Leyvoune Wilson, 45, of Albuquerque, was arrested Friday and will remain in custody pending a scheduled Tuesday arraignment in federal court, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico said. Wilson’s newly appointed federal public defender did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the charges.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office statement said Wilson, also known as Bilal Mu’Min Abdullah, was indicted earlier in the week by a federal grand jury on the charges related to the Islamic State group, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization.
Federal prosecutors believe Wilson was trying to establish an “Islamic State Center” in New Mexico that would teach Islamic State group ideology, provide martial arts training and serve as a haven for people preparing to fight for the group in the U.S. and abroad.
Two men arrested in September 2020 for providing material support to the Islamic State group testified that Wilson had radicalized them to the group’s ideology. Prosecutors say that afterward Wilson allegedly shut down an online platform that could have tied the men to his group.
Kristopher Matthews and Jaylin Molina were arrested for providing material support to the Islamic State group and later pleaded guilty to that charge in the Western District of Texas. Prosecutors accused them of plotting to bomb or shoot up sites including the White House and Trump Tower in New York City.
The men were later convicted by a U.S. court in Texas. Matthews, 36, of South Carolina, was recently sentenced to 20 years in prison, and Molina, 24, of Cost, Texas, got 18 years.
Tennessee
Former police chief sentenced to 6 years in prison
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A former Tennessee police chief has been sentenced to six years in federal prison for using excessive force during arrests, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.
Prosecutors said Anthony “Tony” Bean punched a handcuffed arrestee in the face in 2014 and punched another arrestee in the face in 2017. Bean was convicted on two counts of using excessive force.
Bean, 62, was chief of the Tracy City Police Department during the first offense in 2014, and chief deputy of the Grundy County Sheriff’s Office during the second charge in 2017.
Federal prosecutors also presented evidence that Bean bragged about using excessive force against the victims and failed to report the incidents, according to a media release from the Justice Department.
Francis Hamilton, U.S. Attorney for Tennessee’s eastern district, said Bean “abused his authority and violated the civil rights of arrestees by physically assaulting them while they were restrained and not posing any threat.”
Pennsylvania
Man who attacked police on Jan. 6 gets 46-month sentence
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania man was sentenced Friday to 46 months in federal prison for attacking a police officer with a Donald Trump flag during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
The newspaper reported that Howard Richardson, 72, of King of Prussia, told the court in Washington “there’s no excuse” for his behavior and pleaded for mercy.
But U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly responded, “Your presence and actions in joining other insurrectionists was an inexcusable attack on our democracy.”
Richardson’s sentence is one of the longest yet among those who have been prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 to disrupt the certification of President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. In addition to the nearly four-year prison sentence, Richardson was ordered to serve three years under court supervision after his release and to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Richardson never entered the Capitol, the Inquirer reported, but prosecutors said his attack on a Washington, D.C., police officer merited a lengthy prison term.
According to the paper, police body camera footage showed Richardson bludgeoning an officer outside the Capitol with a metal flagpole. NBC News reported that Richardson also joined a mob using a giant Trump billboard as a battering ram.
Approximately 850 people have been charged with federal crimes for their conduct on Jan. 6. Over 350 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors, and over 230 have been sentenced. Dozens of Capitol riot defendants who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor offenses have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from seven days to five months.
California
Ex-U.S. Air Force sergeant gets life in deputy’s killing
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) — A former Air Force sergeant who was linked to an anti-government extremist movement and in 2020 attacked law enforcement officials amid protests over the killing of George Floyd has been sentenced to life in prison without parole in the killing of a Northern California sheriff’s sergeant.
Steven Carrillo, 33, pleaded guilty in June to all nine counts, including murder, for the killing of Santa Cruz County Sheriff Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller. Also in June, a federal judge sentenced Carrillo to 41 years in prison for killing David Patrick Underwood, a federal security agent who was attacked along with a colleague while guarding a federal building in Oakland.
Prosecutors said that on June 6, 2020, Carrillo ambushed sheriff’s deputies in Santa Cruz County who were responding to a report of a van containing firearms and bomb-making materials. Gutzwiller, 38, was killed and several other law enforcement officials were wounded.
Carrillo, of Santa Cruz, was arrested after he ambushed officials in the community of Ben Lomond.
Prosecutors said Carrillo, of Santa Cruz, had ties to the “boogaloo” movement, a concept embraced by a loose network of gun enthusiasts and militia-style extremists who connected online. Experts say the group started in alt-right culture on the internet with the belief that there is an impending U.S. civil war.
In February, Carrillo pleaded guilty to Underwood’s killing and admitted to posting messages on Facebook a day before the May 29, 2020, shooting in Oakland asking anyone if they were “down to boog” and saying he was ready to act and not just talk. He also admitted firing 19 rounds from a homemade AR-15 rifle from the back of a white van being driven by a man he connected with online.
“I aligned myself with the anti-government movement and wanted to carry out violent acts against federal law enforcement officers in particular,” Carrillo said then.
Carrillo fatally shot Underwood after opening fire on a guard shack as hundreds marched on the streets against police brutality following the May 2020 killing of Floyd, a Black man, by a white Minneapolis police officer.
In the California case, Robert Alvin Justus Jr., of Millbrae, drove the van, according to prosecutors. He faces federal charges of murder and attempted murder in the case.
A week after the shooting in Oakland, deputies arrested Carrillo shortly after he killed Gutzwiller.
Montana
Brothers plead guilty in Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Two Montana brothers whom authorities said were among the first people to breach the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection have pleaded guilty to obstructing official proceedings under a plea deal with prosecutors.
Jerod and Joshua Hughes of East Helena climbed through a broken window and Jerod Hughes helped kick open a door to allow other rioters inside while Congress was certifying the 2020 Electoral College vote, the FBI said in charging documents.
The brothers later were near the front of a group that pursued a lone Capitol Police officer who was able to lead the mob away from the Senate floor, to an area where Jerod Hughes screamed at officers during a standoff in a corridor. The brothers later made their way into the Senate chamber before leaving the building.
They were arrested on Feb. 1, 2021 and released on their own recognizance about two months later. The brothers face a maximum of 20 years in prison. Eight other felony counts against the men are being dropped under the plea deals with prosecutors.
Those agreements call on Jerod Hughes, 37, to receive 51 to 63 months in prison and for Joshua Hughes, 38, to receive 41 to 51 months under federal sentencing guidelines.
They also agreed to pay $2,000 each in restitution toward $1.5 million in damages done to the Capitol during the insurrection, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump disrupted a joint session of Congress as lawmakers met to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
Joshua Hughes’ attorney said he will seek a reduction in his client’s prison sentence to time already served.
The lawyer, Palmer Hoovestal, said the brothers had planned to visit monuments in Washington following their attendance at a rally held by Trump on the morning of the attack.
When Trump told the crowd to go to the Capitol, Joshua Hughes “just followed the crowd,” Hoovestal said.
“He had no intention or prior plan to engage in any of that behavior,” the Hoovestal said.
An attorney for Jerod Hughes did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.
The brothers remained free pending their sentencing on November 22, following a Thursday hearing before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in Washington.
The two are among more than 860 people charged with crimes related to the breach of the Capitol.
Maine
Man sentenced to life in prison for triple killing
MACHIAS, Maine (AP) — A judge on Friday imposed the state’s maximum penalty on a man who killed three people, sentencing him to life in prison.
Thomas Bonfanti of Northfield traveled to three homes and shot and killed three people in February 2020 in the Down East part of the state, prosecutors said. A fourth shooting victim, Regina Long, survived the attack and spoke during Friday’s sentencing, the Bangor Daily News reported.
The killings took the lives of Sam Powers, Jennifer Bryant-Flynn and Shawn Currey. Prosecutors said Bonfanti drove methodically to their homes and shot them with a handgun.
Bonfanti’s motive for the killings remained unclear.
A jury convicted Bonfanti in June after rejecting his claims that the shootings were accidents and acts of self defense.
The trial was moved Waldo County Superior Court because of concerns about pretrial publicity in Washington County, where the killings took place.
