Life Sentence Plus 30 Years for U.S. Synagogue Shooting

The gunman who opened fire on a synagogue in Poway, California, killing one person and injuring several others in 2019, was sentenced Tuesday (28.12.2021) to life in prison plus 30 years, a sentence that adds to that already issued by a state judge who had destined him to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
John Timothy Earnest, 22, who killed a woman and wounded three others in the anti-Semitic attack, pleaded guilty to state and federal charges he faced for the April 27, 2019, shooting at the Poway synagogue and the dar-ul-Arqam mosque fire in Escondido, California, about a month before the shooting.
Earnest pleaded guilty last September to a federal indictment of 113 counts of hate crimes and related to guns, among others.
According to court documents, after several weeks of planning, Earnest arrived at poway’s Chabad synagogue, where members were gathered, and fired a fully loaded AR-15 rifle, hitting four people.
After Earnest emptied the first charger, several assistants lunged at him forcing him to flee. Soon after, Earnest called the police and confessed that he had “just shot at a synagogue.”
Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed in the attack, while the synagogue’s founding rabbi, Yisroel Goldstein; Noya Dahan, 8, and her uncle Almog Peretz, 34, were injured.
Authorities found an “open letter” signed by Earnest in which he acknowledged his hatred of Jews and vowed to defend his “European race.”
Tuesday’s conviction marks the final chapter in earnest’s double trial and adds to the lifetime term imposed on him last August in state court.
“All people in this country should be able to freely exercise their religion without fear of being attacked,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement following today’s sentencing.

Original source in Spanish