Justice Department photos depicting former U.S. Marine Chance Brannon on left before throwing a Molotov cocktail at a Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa, California. On right, the Molotov cocktail in Brannon’s possession last March (images via DOJ).
A former U.S. Marine corporal who prosecutors say was motivated by neo-Nazism and conspired with two other men to firebomb the entrance of Planned Parenthood in California in 2022 — and planned to set off other violent attacks elsewhere — was sentenced on Monday to nine years in prison.
Chance Brannon, as Law&Crime previously reported, was arrested in June 2023. He was on active duty at the time. He was charged alongside co-conspirator and fellow Californian Tibet Ergul and later, Xavier Batten of Florida was also added to the indictment. Brannon pleaded guilty to four counts including conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives, possession of an unregistered destructive device and a single count of intentionally damaging a reproductive health services facility. The last charge, a statement from the Justice Department noted Monday, is a violation of the 1994 Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act.
Batten pleaded guilty in January; Ergul pleaded guilty in February. Batten will be sentenced on May 15, while Ergul goes for sentencing May 30.
“The defendant violently attacked a reproductive health care facility and plotted multiple, potentially deadly assaults to advance his hate-fueled agenda,” Kristen Clarke, assistant Attorney General for department’s Civil Rights Division said. “The defendant’s assault on the Costa Mesa Clinic was designed to terrorize patients seeking reproductive health care and the people who provide it. Such violence has no place in the national discourse on reproductive health. The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute those who seek to use threats of violence, force, and destruction of property to target vulnerable communities.”
In addition to planning to hurl a Molotov cocktail at the entrance of a Planned Parenthood in Costa Mesa, prosecutors said Brannon had initially conspired to target the Anti-Defamation League’s office in San Diego but opted against it, wanting to scare pregnant women and deter doctors and staff from providing abortion and other reproductive health care services more than he wished to attack the organization known for its work exposing hate and extremism.
In the early morning hours of March 13, 2022, Brannon and Ergul pulled off the plan, lighting one of the explosives and then chucking it at the building’s entryway as flames started to engulf it. Brannon and Ergul fled but then came back later to inspect their handiwork.
Prosecutors said Brannon later tried to convince Batten they could pull off the crime again just a month later and right after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion. Around the same time, Brannon apparently discussed starting a “race war” by attacking an electrical substation in Orange County, California.
Investigators said they found a thumb drive Brannon had made into a necklace and on it, they found an “operation plan and a gear list” to target the Southern California Edison substation.
“Brannon possessed several items on the gear list, including a rifle with ‘Total [N-word] Death’ written in Cyrillic and a recording of the 2019 mosque shooting in Christchurch, New Zealand, where a white supremacist murdered 51 people and injured 40 others,” the Justice Department said.
Racist remarks littered his communications; prosecutors say he spoke of the necessity for ethnic cleansing in the U.S. and at one point, texted a friend: “Can we just be done with the elections have the race war already?”
He whined: “[P]eople will never do anything if everyone keeps waiting for [a race war] to start on its own.”
Evidence also showed that through 2023, Brannon and Ergul talked about attacking Dodger Stadium during an LGBT pride event. The men shared a “WW2 sabotage manual” and talked about using a remote detonator to do the deadly deed. Brannon told Ergul they would need to do test runs around the stadium to “case” it.
Two days before the pride event, Brannon and Ergul were arrested.
Brannon was motivated by an extremist neo-Nazi ideology and gushed about Adolph Hitler in text messages, once saying that Hitler was a “great man who loved his people and tried to save us all from the jews,” according to investigators. He also researched “Unabomber” Ted Kaczynski and would greet his friends with “88” — code for “Heil Hitler.” Investigators also say they found a number of antisemitic writings, drawings and books in his bedroom.
Prior to his arrest, Brannon allegedly planned to rob Jewish people in the Hollywood Hills.
In addition to the nine-year sentence, Brannon was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution. He will be placed on supervised release for three years after his sentence is served.
Once Brannon was arrested, he stayed detained. Authorities said at the time they apprehended him, he possessed a short-barreled rifle with two silencers, neither of which were registered. He was also accused to trying to contact international adversaries to the U.S. and offering to become their intelligence “mole.”
His attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
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