Jury convicts U.S. Army veteran of plotting terrorist attack at Calif. rally

Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A federal grand jury has convicted a U.S. Army veteran who plotted to bomb a California White nationalist rally in 2019.

The Justice Department said in a statement that the jury convicted Mark Steven Domingo, 28, of Reseda on Wednesday afternoon on the charges of providing material support to terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Domingo is to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson on Nov. 1 when he faces a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison.

The Army veteran who had been deployed to Afghanistan was arrested April 26, 2019, with a bomb in his hands that he intended to use at the Long Beach White nationalist rally.

Authorities said they launched an investigation into Domingo in response to posts he made online in March of that year following the shooting deaths of 51 people by a White nationalist at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

"There mustbe retribution," he wrote online following the attack, according to the criminal complaint.

After the posts, a FBI source began conversing with Domingo online that led to in-person meetings, during which the Army veteran discussed possible terrorism targets including Jews, police officers, churches and a military facility.

The plot to bomb the rally formed in April when Domingo asked the agent to invite a bomb-maker who was an FBI agent into their plan and to whom he provided hundreds of 3-1/2 inch nails he chose to be used as shrapnel in the device "because they were long enough to penetrate organs in the human body," prosecutors said.

Two days before the rally, the three scouted the location of Bluff Park while Domingo discussed finding the most crowded areas to inflict the greatest damage. According to the criminal complaint, Domingo said they should arrive early before the rally on Sunday and disguise themselves as counter-protesters.

If they survived, he said, according to the complaint, they could plan further attacks.

After returning from scouting the locations, the three people inspected the explosive devices.

"Domingo then carried one of the IEDs out of the location to put into the [undercover agent's] vehicle, at which point he was arrested by the FBI," the complaint said.