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A group of Texas protesters convicted of terrorism charges received unusually harsh sentences of at least 50 years in prison on Tuesday in a closely watched case that was widely seen as a test case of the Trump administration’s efforts to crack down on dissent.
After a three-week jury trial, the nine activists were all found guilty of a slew of criminal charges in March, stemming from a Fourth of July protest at an immigrant detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, south of Fort Worth. The demonstrators arrived late at night with a plan to set off fireworks as part of a noise demonstration to show solidarity with those detained inside. A few of the protesters spontaneously broke off from the main group and vandalized cars in the parking lot, a guard shack, slashed the tires on a government van and broke a security camera. When a police officer arrived on the scene and drew his weapon, one of the activists fired an AR-15 from the woods, hitting the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.
Benjamin Song, who fired the gun at the police officer, was sentenced to 100 years in prison. Song was convicted of attempted murder of an officer of the United States, as well as firearm and explosives charges. He was also convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorists. He faced anywhere from 20 years to life in prison.
Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Savanna Batten, Elizabeth Soto and Meagan Morris were sentenced to 50 years in prison. Maricela Rueda, another demonstrator, was sentenced to 70 years in prison. All six were convicted of riot, providing material support to terrorist, and explosive charges. Rueda was also convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record.
Evetts, Hill, Morris and Rueda were acquitted on attempted murder and firearms charges.
The sentences handed down on Tuesday were unusually long, said Barbara McQuade, a former federal prosecutor who served as the US attorney for the eastern district of Michigan during the Obama administration.
“Most often, judges will sentence defendants for separate counts concurrently. Here, it appears that the judge stacked the sentences for each count consecutively. I would have expected lengthy sentences here, more in the ballpark at 15 to 25 years, but nothing like 50 to 100 years,” she wrote in an email.
The Trump administration praised the sentences.
“The sentences handed down today make clear that Antifa terrorists who attack law enforcement and federal facilities will face swift and uncompromising justice,” Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said in a statement. “Their violent extremism has no place in our country, and the Department of Justice will continue to aggressively investigate, disrupt, and prosecute those who threaten law enforcement officers or undermine the rule of law.”
In a statement, Song said he had fired at the police officer, Lt Thomas Gross, because Gross had his weapon drawn and Song believed he was about to shoot a protester.
“I never want to see good people, standing for what they believe in, gunned down in the street,” he said. “Now 21 people have been arrested, have been persecuted, have been punished. For knowing me or being my friend? This is wrong. This is mass punishment. Collective punishment. This is guilt by association. This is injustice.”
Evetts, a mechanical engineer, said in court on Tuesday the intent of the fireworks was solely to get the attention of people held inside the detention center. He intends to appeal his conviction and sentence, said Patrick McLain, one of his lawyers.
“As the witnesses at the sentencing hearing stated, Zach has always been a caring and compassionate man; an accomplished mechanical engineer with no history of trouble with the law or violence. Quite the opposite, he has been a man of peace who has always stood up for those bullied or afflicted,” McLain said. “Zach continues to give compassionate help in the jail, as a detainee, and we expect that will continue until he is one day cleared of this wrongful conviction by appeal or pardon.”
The sentences were “absurd”, said Amber Lowrey, Batten’s sister.
“This case has relied on lies and misinformation from the start,” she said. “It is heartbreaking nonetheless. But we will keep fighting to overturn these unjust convictions and to free Savanna and all the Prairieland defendants. We will not rest until they are free!”
The punishment for the protesters exceeds the lengthiest prison sentences given out for the attack on the Capitol on January 6. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys who was convicted of seditious conspiracy, was sentenced to 22 years in prison. Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right group the Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Even though many of the protesters did not know each other, or were loosely affiliated, prosecutors said the attack on the officer was premeditated and part of a conspiracy. They also said the activists were part of a “North Texas antifa cell”, which was seen as part of the administration’s effort to criminalize “antifa”, which is not an organization but rather a constellation of leftwing views.
During the trial, prosecutors displayed group messages from some of the defendants in which they planned the protest and discussed bringing firearms and dressing in all black to prevent themselves from being easily identified. But some of the defendants – like Batten, Elizabeth Soto and her husband, Ines Soto, were not involved in the planning, arrived separately at the protest, and left when guards at the facility asked them to do so. Morris stayed in a van many of the protesters had carpooled in with a cache of weapons and body armor while the protest was ongoing. She later fled from police when they arrived on scene. She was ultimately arrested after a traffic stop that night.
Prosecutors in the case charged and secured conviction of eight of the nine defendants for providing material support for terrorists. The ninth defendant, Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was not at the protest, but was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record after prosecutors said he moved leftwing zines and other materials at the request of Rueda, his wife, after she was arrested. Sanchez-Estrada was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Tuesday.
“I worked really hard every day in this country, and I believe in human rights and helping others in need. I donate money and art to help animals and other people … I’m a father, a husband and a teacher. But I’m not a terrorist,” Sanchez-Estrada said in court before his sentencing.
Although the charge does not require prosecutors to prove a connection to any kind of terrorist ideology, only that a defendant provided support for one of a list of several crimes, the justice department spun the convictions as proof that antifa was a terrorist organization.
The defendants in the case are a collection of activists who were loosely affiliated with one another through a local leftwing book club and gun group. During the trial, prosecutors highlighted many of the zines that the book club read as evidence of the conspiracy and ideology that linked the demonstrators. That evidence was met with widespread criticism from legal observers who said that it amounted to criminalizing freedom of speech.
Prosecutors also focused heavily on the cache of guns that many of the defendants owned and some brought to the detention center on 4 July. It is undisputed that all of the firearms were bought legally and that there was only one person who fired a weapon on 4 July. Prosecutors also highlighted other evidence they claimed proved that the protesters planned violence, including their decision to communicate and auto-delete messages on Signal, an encrypted messaging platform widely used among activists, journalists and other citizens wary of government surveillance.
Since the charges in the case, the government has brought a number of similar prosecutions against activists. Earlier this month, prosecutors filed criminal conspiracy charges against 15 activists in Minneapolis who allegedly interfered with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in performing their duties. A federal jury in Spokane, Washington, found three protesters guilty of conspiracy for participating in a 2025 protest at an ICE facility. A similar case in Chicago against protesters fell apart after it was revealed there was misconduct before grand jurors.
