California synagogue shooter gets second life sentence

John T. Earnest has been sentenced to serve a second life term in prison for a fatal California synagogue shooting in 2019, CNN reported. 

According to a Department of Justice statement, Earnest was sentenced to life plus 30 years in federal court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to a 113-count indictment that included hate crime and weapons violations. 

Earnest, who was 19 years old at the time, killed Lori Gilbert Kaye and injured three others in a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue, which he entered during the last day of Passover armed with an AR-15.

Earnest also admitted to setting fire to a mosque at Escondido, Calif., just weeks prior to the shooting. 

Prosecutors said that Earnest wrote a manifesto that was posted on the internet before the attack. He made multiple anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim statements such as “I can only kill so many Jews” and “I only wish I killed more,” CNN reported. 

“The defendant targeted his victims because he hated the Jewish community and Muslim community, hatred that has no place in our society and hatred that will never, never win,” Southern District of California attorney Randy Grossman said.

“The defendant and his hatred have been silenced. He will spend the rest of his days and die in prison, while he languishes behind bars.”

Earnest was previously sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a plea agreement in a state court. 

In a statement to CNN, Attorney General Merrick Garland said every American should have a right “to freely exercise their religion without fear of being attacked.”

“All people in this country should be able to freely exercise their religion without fear of being attacked,” Garland said. “This defendant’s horrific crime was an assault on fundamental principles of our nation. The Justice Department is steadfast in its commitment to confronting unlawful acts of hate and to holding perpetrators of hate-fueled violence accountable.”