More prison terms handed down in Texas ICE facility attack, including 50-year sentences for wife and husband
Seven more defendants were sentenced Wednesday morning in connection with a shooting outside an immigration detention center in North Texas.
Six of the defendants previously pleaded guilty to to one count of providing material support to terrorists, including a man who testified at the trial of the other demonstrators that he spray-painted a guard shack and vehicles in the parking lot.
The sentences are:
- Joy Gibson: 15 years
- Rebecca Morgan: 15 years
- Lynette Sharp: 9 years, 2 months
- John Thomas: 9 years, 2 months
- Seth Sikes: 6 years
- Nathan Baumann: 1 year, 10 months
The seventh defendant sentenced Wednesday, Ines Soto, was convicted at trial on charges of providing material support to terrorists, riot and explosives. He received a 50-year sentence; his wife Elizabeth Soto was also sentenced to 50 years. At trial, attorneys for the couple said they arrived late and left when confronted by guards.
Seven others who were convicted at trial received sentences from 30 years to 100 years in prison for Benjamin Song, a former Marine reservist convicted of attempted murder. Some of them, including Song, have filed notices of appeal.
The hearing came nearly a year after the shooting last July outside the Prairieland Detention Center in Johnson County, south of Fort Worth, which wounded a police officer and included the group setting off fireworks during a demonstration against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
The U.S. Justice Department alleged was carried out by members of the leftist militant group antifa. Attorneys for the protesters have denied antifa links, and family members have expressed shock over the stiff sentences handed down in Texas.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor called the protest an "assault on democracy" before he and another judge handed down lengthy prison sentences to eight demonstrators who were convicted by a federal jury on terrorism charges.
The case has been closely watched by critics who say the prosecution could have wide-reaching impact on protests and First Amendment free-speech rights.
For the past year, attorneys for the defendants have said there was no planned ambush and that protesters who brought firearms only did so for their own protection. They argued the gathering was planned as a late-night demonstration with fireworks to show support for immigrants.
Prosecutors told jurors at trial that the group's actions — including bringing firearms, first aid kits and wearing body armor — were signals of nefarious intent.
