Third perp sent to prison over California Planned Parenthood firebombing

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) — A third and final defendant was sent to prison Thursday over the firebombing of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Southern California two years ago.

At a court hearing in Santa Ana, U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney, a George W. Bush appointee, sentenced 22-year-old Tibet Ergul to six years in federal prison.

Ergul pleaded guilty in February for his role in damaging a reproductive health facility in Costa Mesa in March 22. He also admitted that he and his accomplices were plotting to firebomb an electrical substation to disrupt the power grid in Orange County and were discussing an attack on Dodger Stadium in downtown Los Angeles during LGBTQ+ pride night in the summer of 2023.

“This defendant’s hatred toward others led him to plotting and carrying out violence,” United States Attorney Martin Estrada said in a news release following sentencing. “We will not allow bigoted intolerance to divide us. My office will continue to aggressively investigate and prosecute crimes motivated by hate in order to keep our community safe.”

In early 2022, Ergul plotted the firebomb attack with Chance Brannon, who at the time was an active-duty U.S. Marine. They targeted Planned Parenthood to make a statement against abortion, intimidate pregnant women out of obtaining abortions and to deter doctors, staff and employees at the clinic from providing the procedures, according to his plea agreement.

Brannon, who prosecutors said was motivated by an extremist neo-Nazi ideology, was sentenced to nine years in prison in April. A third perp — 21-year-old Xavier Batten of Brooksville, Fla. — was sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison earlier this month after authorities said he advised Brannon on how to assemble a Molotov cocktail.

Before the attack, Ergul and Brannon assembled a Molotov cocktail in Ergul’s garage.

Wearing hoodies and face masks, they threw it at the clinic’s door in the middle of the night on March 13, 2022. The clinic was forced to temporarily close and had to reschedule dozens of appointments.

They intended to attack a second Planned Parenthood clinic in Orange County with a Molotov cocktail in June 2022, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade . They scrapped that plan when they noticed law enforcement near the targeted clinic.

Before he was arrested last year, Ergul also plotted with Brannon to attack a Southern California Edison substation in Orange County, using a Molotov cocktail or firearms.

“The rifle is in a box in my room waiting to be used in the upcoming race war," Ergul wrote to Brannon. “I have an unbelievable desire to murder journalists and politicians as soon as some chaotic event begins.”

In addition, Ergul admitted that he and Brannon discussed and researched how to attack the Dodger Stadium parking lot or the stadium’s electrical room on Pride Night.

They exchanged sabotage manuals and discussed doing practice runs to case the stadium. They were arrested two days before the scheduled Pride Night.

“Mr. Ergul appreciates the government and court’s consideration,” his attorney Sheila Mojtehed said. “He looks forward to closing this chapter and moving on with his life.”

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