The Arleigh Burke-class, guided-missile destroyer USS Spruance arrives at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach to conduct ordnance operations. (Eli Medellin/U.S. Navy)
(Tribune News Service) — A California man was sentenced on Monday, Nov. 4 to a year in prison after pleading guilty in hoaxes claiming various women planned mass-casualty attacks at U.S. military facilities in Orange and Los Angeles counties.
Daniel Sandoval, 29, submitted a false tip to the Department of Defense on March 21, 2021 alleging that a specific woman was planning to detonate bombs and carry out a mass attack at a United States Navy facility in Seal Beach, according to his plea agreement.
Over the next few days, Sandoval submitted seven additional tips that falsely accused other women of planning attacks, including bombings and mass shootings, at different military facilities, including a U.S. Army Reserve Center in South El Monte and a U.S. military hospital in Bell Gardens.
The women identified by Sandoval in the phony tips were identified only by initials in court documents.
“[Sandoval’s] unlawful conduct harmed not only the military bases he targeted and the personnel living or working on those bases, but also harmed the innocent women who he claimed were perpetrating these dangerous threats,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum, according to a Department of Justice news release.
He also admitted in his plea agreement that his conduct significantly disrupted public and government functions and services, including the evacuation of personnel from a Navy building.
Sandoval, who had pleaded guilty in February to one count of false information and hoaxes, was sentenced to one year and one day in federal prison.
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