Dana El-Kurd
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
On Friday, March 13th, eight people were convicted by a federal jury on charges of riot, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and providing material support to terrorists.
One of the defendants was convicted of attempted murder of a police officer, and another person was convicted on two counts of concealing documents, bringing the total number of federal defendants to nine.
Originally, this federal case had way more defendants, but last year, seven of them pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists, four of whom were later called to testify for the prosecution during the trial.
Have they gotten sentenced yet, the folks who pled out?
No, they are going to be sentenced later this summer, along with all of the defendants that were convicted.
Though their sentence will be a maximum of 15 years, which is shorter than the defendants who were convicted.
The Prairieland Defendants Support Committee did ask me to read their names.
The defendants are Ains Soto, Liz Soto, Savannah Batten, Megan Morris, Autumn Hill, Mari Rueda, Benjamin Song, Zachary Evitz, and Des Estrada.
The prosecution tried to argue that this was a coordinated attack on an ICE facility in Prairieland, Texas, while the defense argued this was a noise demonstration protest outside of this detention facility last summer on the night of July 4th.
After protesters threw fireworks and vandalized property, DHS personnel called local police for assistance.
One officer arrived, drew his handgun, and yelled, stop, at a person in all black clothes who was running away.
One of the defendants, B. Song, then yelled, get to the rifles, before firing toward the officer with an AR-15, hitting him in the neck.
Song fired 11 times.
The officer returned fire three times.
Song then fled the scene.
Most of the defendants were arrested in the days after the attacks, some that night near the facility, though Song camped out hiding in the woods overnight and evaded capture for 11 days with the help of others.
Many of those who assisted Song evade capture after the shooting pled guilty to providing material support to terrorists.