A former US Marine who firebombed a Planned Parenthood clinic in Southern California and plotted other attacks has been sentenced nine years in prison — with officials claiming his “Nazi worldview” was the fuel for his crimes.
Chance Brannon, 24, had been an active-duty member of the Marine Corps stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the firebombing and his June arrest. He pleaded guilty in November.
The US Attorney’s Office revealed that Brannon had also made plans for additional attacks on a second Planned Parenthood clinic, a Southern California Edison substation “in furtherance of a race war” and an LGBTQ pride night celebration at Dodger Stadium.
“The defendant violently attacked a reproductive healthcare facility and plotted multiple, potentially deadly assaults to advance his hate-fueled agenda,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
Acting Assistant Director in Charge Mehtab Syed of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office welcomed the 24-year-old’s sentencing.
“Brannon’s deep-rooted hatred and extremist views inspired him to target individuals or groups who did not conform to his neo-Nazi worldview and, in one case, led him to carry out a violent attack which could have killed innocent people,” Syed said.
In February and March 2022, Brannon and his co-defendants, Tibet Ergul, 22 and Xavier Batten, 21, conspired to use a Molotov cocktail to destroy a commercial property, officials said.
The US Attorney’s Office said that Brannon had considered various targets, including the Anti-Defamation League office in San Diego, but ultimately chose to target a Planned Parenthood.
Surveillance footage of the March 13, 2022 bombing showed Brannon and Ergul throwing a Molotov cocktail at the front door of the medical facility — the pair later returning to surveil their work.
The clinic was closed at the time and no one was injured.
In May 2022, Brannon counseled Batten on how to “get away with” committing a similar attack to the firebombing.
Brannon and Ergul had allegedly planned to use a second Molotov cocktail to destroy another Planned Parenthood clinic in June following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The pair are said to have abandoned their plan because of law enforcement near the clinic they planned to target.
Ergul and Brannon then discussed starting a race war by attacking an electrical substation to disrupt the functioning of a power grid in Orange County.
Brannon kept a file containing the plan on a thumb drive disguised as a military-style necklace bearing the Marine Corps motto.
U.S. District Court
Brannon used racial slurs for various minority groups, “made hateful comments towards all non-white individuals,” and discussed “cleans[ing]” the United States of particular ethnic groups, according to the government’s sentencing memorandum.
In the lead up to his arrest in June, Brannon had texted a friend: “Can we just be done with elections and have the race war already.”
Brannon and Ergul also researched how to attack Dodger Stadium on a night celebrating pride — including by using a remote-detonated device.
Brannon and Ergul were arrested two days before the event, according to court documents.
Brannon shared extremist neo-Nazi views and would often greet friends using “88” — a coded language for “Heil Hitler” — and called Adolf Hitler a “great man.”
Just days before his arrest, Brannon had also started planning to rob Jewish residents in Hollywood Hills with a friend.
At the time of his arrest Brannon was in possession of a short-barreled rifle and two silencers which had not been registered.
During the sentencing hearing, US District Judge Cormac J. Carney said that Brannon “engaged in cruel and indefensible domestic terrorism,” Newsday reported.
Ergul and Batten, have also pleaded guilty to charges against them and are scheduled to be sentenced in May.
