Synagogue gunman gets life prison term

SAN DIEGO — A 22-year-old white supremacist was sentenced Tuesday to life in federal prison for killing a woman and injuring three others when he burst into a Southern California synagogue in 2019, adding to a life sentence he received three months earlier in state court.

John T. Earnest of San Diego declined to speak in a courtroom full of victims, families and congregants. In state court, when his attorney said Ernest wanted to speak, a judge refused, saying he didn’t want to give a platform for his hate-filled speech.

Earnest’s attorney, Ellis Johnston III, said his client acknowledged his actions were “inappropriate,” a statement that was greeted with skepticism by prosecutors. Peter Ko, a federal prosecutor, said Earnest’s expression of regret came shortly after the shooting in a phone call to someone else.

U.S. District Judge Anthony Battaglia said the federal and state life sentences would run one after the other instead of concurrently, acknowledging it was symbolic but that it was meant to send a strong message.

Earnest pleaded guilty to federal charges in September after the Justice Department said it wouldn’t seek the death penalty. Defense attorneys and prosecutors recommended a life sentence, plus 30 years.

That same month, Earnest received another life term under a plea agreement with state charges that spared him the death penalty.

Minutes after the shooting on the last day of Passover, Earnest called a 911 dispatcher to say he shot up the synagogue to save white people. “I’m defending our nation against the Jewish people, who are trying to destroy all white people,” he said.