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April 15 (UPI) -- A former U.S. Marine and neo-Nazi who pleaded guilty to firebombing a California Planned Parenthood clinic was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment on Monday, prosecutors said. Chance Brannon, 24, was an active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton in Southern California in March 2022 when he and two others -- Tibet Ergul, 22, of Irvine, and Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Fla. -- conspired to destroy the reproductive healthcare facility.
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In a late November plea agreement, Brannon admitted that from at least February 2022, they had schemed to destroy a commercial facility. Prosecutors said the Jewish nonprofit Anti-Defamation League's San Diego office was among targets they considered before choosing the Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood with hopes their attack would inspire further violence.
The Planned Parenthood was attacked during the early hours of March 13, 2022, and Brannon admitted that he and Ergul had thrown the lit Molotov cocktail at its entrance, igniting a fire.
U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney handed down the nine-year sentence for the firebombing on Monday, while ordering Brannon to also pay $1,000 in restitution.
Brannon was arrested in June while plotting other attacks prosecutors said were to further his extreme ideology.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors argued that Brannon was a neo-Nazi conspiracy theorist who sought to start a race war with his crimes.
He greeted friends with "88," a White supremacist code for "Heil Hitler," whom he called "a great man who loved his people and tried to save us all from the jews," according to the court document.
Anti-Semitic writings, drawings and literature were also found in his bedroom.
"Mr. Brannon's deep-rooted hatred and extremist views inspired him to target individuals or groups who did not conform to his neo-Nazi worldview and, in one case, led him to carry out a violent attack which could have killed innocent people," Mehtab Syed, the Acting Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office said in a statement.
In June, following the Supreme Court's overturning of the landmark 1973 ruling of Roe vs. Wade, Brannon and Batten planned to destroy a second Planned Parenthood clinic, but called off the attack due to an increased presence of law enforcement.
Until their arrests, Brannon and Ergul had discussed attacking an Orange County electrical substation with the notion that disrupting the power grid could aid in starting a race war.
Prosecutors said plans for that attack were stored in a USB drive disguised as a military-style necklace bearing the motto of the Marines around his neck.
Brannon was planning with an unidentified friend to rob Jewish residents of the Hollywood Hills, they said.
In their sentencing memorandum, prosecutors also accused Brannon of placing calls in 2022 with two unidentified foreign adversaries, offering himself to be their "mole" and provide them with U.S. intelligence.
"This defendant's deep-seated hatred led him to commit a firebombing and plan many other acts of violence, including starting a race war," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Monday in a statement.
"This prosecution sends a message that we will act decisively to protect all members of our community from acts of violence, and that we will remain united against hate."
Both Batten and Ergul also pleaded guilty and are scheduled to be sentenced on May 13 and 30, respectively.
In his November plea agreement, Brannon admits to conspiring with Tibet Ergul, 22, of Irvine, and Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Fla., in February and March of 2022 to raze the center with a Molotov cocktail.
