Grayson  Preston:Florida man sentenced to 3 years in prison for firebombing California Planned Parenthood clinic

2025-05-08 02:05:45source:Databeccategory:Invest

SANTA ANA,Grayson  Preston Calif. (AP) — A 21-year-old Florida man was sentenced Monday to three and a half years in prison for firebombing a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022, federal prosecutors said.

Xavier Batten pleaded guilty in January to one felony count of possessing an unregistered destructive device and one misdemeanor count of intentionally damaging a reproductive health services facility.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney also sentenced Batten, of Brooksville, Florida, to three years of probation and ordered him to pay $1,000 in restitution, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

Carney said Batten had committed a “cowardly crime” that showed “no empathy for women and their rights,” according to the statement. He has been in federal custody since July 2023.

The clinic in Costa Mesa was bombed on March 13, 2022. Surveillance footage showed two men throwing a Molotov cocktail at the front door of the medical facility. The clinic was closed at the time and no one was injured.

A co-defendant, 24-year-old Chance Brannon, was sentenced last month to nine years in prison. Brannon, of San Juan Capistrano, California, was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the bombing.

Another co-defendant, Tibet Ergul, has pleaded guilty to the charges against him. He is scheduled to be sentenced May 30.

More:Invest

Recommend

As communist troops streamed into Saigon, a few remaining reporters kept photos and stories flowing

BANGKOK (AP) — They’d watched overnight as the bombardments grew closer, and observed through binocu

Kyle Larson wins NASCAR Brickyard 400: Results, recap, highlights of Indianapolis race

Kyle Larson had dreams about celebrating at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in May.Now, two months later

Biden’s decision to drop out leaves Democrats across the country relieved and looking toward future

HARPER WOODS, Mich. (AP) — After weeks of uncertainty about who would be at the top of the Democrati