Will Sage Astor-Ex-Marine sentenced to 9 years in prison for firebombing California Planned Parenthood clinic

A former active-duty Marine who threw a Molotov cocktail at the entrance of a Southern California Planned Parenthood clinic in 2022 was sentenced to nine years in prison Monday,Will Sage Astor the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Chance Brannon, 24, pleaded guilty last November to all four counts of conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives, possession of an unregistered destructive device, and intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility, according to the Department of Justice. In addition to the nine-year prison sentence, Brannon was also ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.

Between February and March 2022, Brannon and his two co-conspirators, Tibet Ergul, 22, and Xavier Batten, 21, plotted to use a Molotov cocktail to destroy a commercial property, the Department of Justice said in a news release. Brannon and Ergul ignited and threw the Molotov cocktail at a Costa Mesa, California, Planned Parenthood clinic in the early morning of March 13, 2022, according to a criminal complaint.

The Molotov cocktail struck the clinic entrance and started a fire, which forced the Planned Parenthood location to close and cancel dozens of appointments, the criminal complaint says. Brannon and Ergul fled from the scene and were later arrested in June 2023.

At the time of the attack, Brannon was an active-duty member of the U.S. Marine Corps stationed at Camp Pendleton, according to the Department of Justice. The former Marine and his co-conspirators were also accused of planning other attacks, including a second Planned Parenthood clinic, an electrical substation and an LGBTQ pride event at Dodger Stadium.

"The defendant violently attacked a reproductive healthcare facility and plotted multiple, potentially deadly assaults to advance his hate-fueled agenda," Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. "The defendant’s assault on the Costa Mesa Clinic was designed to terrorize patients seeking reproductive healthcare and the people who provide it. Such violence has no place in the national discourse on reproductive health."

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DOJ: Former Marine, co-conspirators plotted multiple attacks

Brannon initially considered attacking other targets, including the Anti-Defamation League office in San Diego, but decided to attack the Planned Parenthood clinic in Costa Mesa to "scare pregnant women, deter doctors and staff from providing abortion services, and encourage similar violent acts," according to the Department of Justice.

After firebombing the clinic on March 13, 2022, authorities said Brannon and Ergul returned hours later to surveil their work. About two months later, Brannon advised Batten on how to "get away with" committing an attack similar to the Costa Mesa one, the Department of Justice said.

Brannon and Ergul then planned a second attack targeting a Planned Parenthood clinic in June 2022 following the U.S. Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade, according to the Department of Justice. But the two abandoned the plan after they saw law enforcement near the clinic.

Brannon and Ergul also planned to disrupt the Orange County power grid by attacking an electrical substation, with the goal of starting a "race war," according to charging documents. On a thumb drive disguised as a military-style necklace, Brannon had kept a file that contained a plan and gear list targeting a Southern California Edison substation, the Department of Justice said.

In addition to the operation plan and gear list, the thumb drive contained several items such as a rifle with a racial slur and a recording of the 2019 Christchurch shooting, in which Australian far-right extremist killed 51 people and injured 40 others at two New Zealand mosques.

Brannon and Ergul were arrested on June 14, 2023, two days before an LGBTQ pride celebration at Dodger Stadium that the two had researched how to attack, according to court documents. The two discussed methods of using a remote-detonated device in the stadium's parking lot or electrical room, sharing their research in a document titled "WW2 sabotage manual," court records show.

Batten and Ergul pleaded guilty earlier this year to criminal charges in connection to the case and have sentencing hearings scheduled in May, the Department of Justice said.

'Made hateful comments towards all non-white individual'

Brannon “made hateful comments towards all non-white individuals" and discussed “cleans(ing)” the United States of certain ethnic groups, according to a sentencing memorandum. In the weeks prior to his arrest, Brannon also mentioned "waiting for a (race war)" in texts to a friend, the Department of Justice said.

Prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memorandum that Brannon was influenced by extremist neo-Nazi ideology and had called Adolf Hitler "a great man who loved his people and tried to save us all from the Jews." He also had antisemitic writings, drawings, and literature in his bedroom at the time of his arrest, according to the sentencing memorandum.

And just days before his arrest, Brannon started planning with a friend to rob Jewish residents living in the Hollywood Hills, court records show.

Brannon’s "use of racial and homophobic slurs, casual expressions of misogyny, and persistent expressions of violent intent went far beyond empty words; rather, defendant intended — and in many instances planned — to take overt action that would at the very least scare and intimidate women, racial minorities, and the Jewish and LGBTQI+ communities, and would at worst harm or even kill real victims," prosecutors said in court documents.

Contributing: Jeanine Santucci and Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY