SEATTLE — An Arizona man has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for his role in a neo-Nazi group's coordinated campaign to threaten and harass journalists, activists and other targets on both U.S. coasts.
Johnny Roman Garza expressed remorse before a federal judge in Seattle sentenced him Wednesday.
Garza pleaded guilty in September to conspiring with other members of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division to deliver threatening messages to journalists’ homes and other places.
On a Jewish journalist’s bedroom window, Garza affixed a poster that depicted a man in a skull mask holding a Molotov cocktail in front of a burning home.
Garza said in his plea agreement that he conspired with others in the organization through an encrypted online chat group.
Garza and the other defendants focused on journalists and advocates who were Jewish or people of color.
Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband of the Civil Rights Division with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington said in a statement:
“The United States and other nations fought a global war to rid the world of murderous threats and violence by Nazis. The nation and its allies defeated Nazi Germany, but Nazi-inspired threats and violence continue to plague this nation and others 75 years after the end of World War II.
The defendant threatened a Jewish journalist and conspired to intimidate journalists and advocates who worked to expose anti-Semitism around the country. Threats motivated by religious intolerance are unacceptable, and so too are threats aimed at those who work to end such discrimination.
The Justice Department will continue the fight against neo-Nazi-related threats and violence and is committed fully to investigating and prosecuting anyone who commits hate crimes.”
The case was investigated by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces in Tampa, Seattle, Houston and Phoenix.
