Tibet Ergul, left, and Chance Brannon, an active-duty Marine then stationed at Camp Pendleton, Calif., are seen on still images from surveillance footage, as identified in court documents provided by the Justice Department. Both have been convicted on charges related to domestic terrorism. (Justice Department)
A Marine veteran who firebombed a Planned Parenthood clinic in California and plotted other acts of domestic terrorism while serving on active duty was sentenced to nine years in prison this week.
Chance Brannon, 24, was motivated by neo-Nazi ideology when he threw a Molotov cocktail at the clinic in 2022, according to documents filed in federal court for the Central District of California.
“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 in a statement Monday.
Brannon, who was stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty in November to four charges related to the attack, which shut down the clinic for a day but left no one injured.
The San Juan Capistrano resident described himself as a “domestic terroris[t],” a sentencing memorandum by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney said.
At the time of his June 2023 arrest, Brannon was a Marine corporal who had joined in 2018, ABC News reported at the time.
Brannon joins other service members who have been convicted of acts of extremism while on active duty. This includes Ethan Melzer, an Army paratrooper sentenced to 45 years in prison for plotting with neo-Nazis to get other soldiers in his unit killed, and Micah Coomer, one of five active-duty troops arrested in connection to the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol building.
Extremist groups often seek out people with military ties, and a Defense Department Inspector General report in August found military recruiters sometimes skipped steps to screen out enlistees affiliated with criminal gangs or extremist groups.
In his plea agreement, Brannon admitted he and two conspirators planned violent attacks across California.
Among these plots were a second firebombing, an attack on the local electrical grid with the goal of starting a race war, planting a bomb at Dodger Stadium on a night celebrating LGBTQI+ pride and robbing Jewish residents in Hollywood Hills.
After Brannon was arrested, investigators said they found white supremacist literature, as well as photos showing him performing a Nazi salute. Brannon also possessed messages declaring an “unbelievable desire to murder journalists,” prosecutors said.
Brannon’s defense highlighted his struggles with mental health issues, including autism, and argued his actions were fueled by a combination of poor self-esteem and rigid thinking, a report Tuesday by California’s City News Service said.
He was called a “very intelligent young man but socially immature” and driven by deeply religious beliefs by his father Michael Brannon, who wrote a letter to the court asking for leniency, according to the Orange County Register. Brannon was described as an atheist in high school who converted to Catholicism as an adult.
Brannon’s sentencing memorandum noted he grew up in an upper-class neighborhood in Orange County with a supportive mother who was a clinical psychologist.
He served as a Farsi language analyst and graduated from the Defense Language Institute in 2020, the memo said. Brannon received awards and decorations that included a good conduct medal and various shooting badges.
But troubling signs could be seen at the time, said the sentencing memorandum written by Carney.
When Brannon felt the Marines had wasted five years of his life by not deploying him into combat, he placed calls to the Chinese and Russian embassies, as he was considering offering himself up as a “mole,” the memo said.
Brannon kept a thumb drive bearing the motto for the Marine Corps that contained a plan to destroy a power station.
The thumb drive was part of plots between Brannon and two friends, Tibet Ergul, 22, of Irvine, Calif.; and Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Fla.
He shared with Ergul a “WWII sabotage manual” and discussed how they could “case” Dodger Stadium to bomb it.
Brannon and Ergul were caught after they shared evidence of the Planned Parenthood clinic bombing via text messages.
An image, released in court filings, shows a Molotov cocktail later thrown at the entrance of a Planned Parenthood facility in Costa Mesa, Calif., on March 13, 2022. Marine veteran Chance Brannon, 24, was sentenced this week to nine years in prison for his role in the firebombing and other planned terror attacks. (Justice Department)
Ergul had texted a woman he knew from high school a photo of his gloved hand holding the Molotov cocktail while in Brannon’s Dodge Challenger, the criminal complaint against them said.
Brannon said he didn’t dispute the facts of the case while in court Monday.
“All I can tell you was it was stupid and out of control,” the Los Angeles Daily News quoted Brannon as saying.
Carney’s explanation for the sentence indicated that Brannon had shown remorse but was unlikely to change his beliefs.
“Candidly, there is no convincing evidence that Mr. Brannon will stop engaging in wrongdoing that he believes to be ‘morally justified,’” Carney wrote.
Brannon’s co-conspirator, Ergul, pleaded guilty earlier this year to similar charges and has a sentencing hearing scheduled for May 30.
The other conspirator, Batten, also pleaded guilty and is expected to be sentenced May 15.
