Fri 01 October 2021:
According to media reports, California man John Earnest was formally sentenced to life in prison without the parole for the 2019 attack on a synagogue that killed one worshiper and injured three others.
Earnest was facing the death penalty at the time, but thanks to a plea deal granted by San Diego Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh, he was spared the death penalty, according to CNN.
Earnest, who was tied to a device that prevented him from turning to the audience, showed no visible reaction during the two-hour hearing as speakers called him a lowlife coward, an evil animal and a monster.
Earnest pled guilty to a 113-count hate crime in September, admitting that he set fire to an Escondido mosque and opened fire in a Poway synagogue “because he wanted to kill Muslims and Jews,” according to the Justice Department at the time.
Earnest, who was 19 at the time of the incident, opened fire inside the synagogue during a religious service, killing one person and injuring three others and was then chased by members of the congregation. He fled the scene of the shootings in his car but was later captured by law enforcement officers who discovered the AR-15 automatic rifle and magazines of ammunition in his car.
Earnest’s parents issued a statement after the shooting expressing shock and sadness, calling their son’s actions a “terrifying mystery.” Their son was an accomplished student, athlete and musician who was studying to be a nurse at California State University, San Marcos.
“To our great shame, he is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries,” they said.
Earnest released an open anti-Semitic message online several hours before the incident, in which he stated that he began planning the attack immediately after the mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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