Third person charged in firebombing of California Planned Parenthood
By Hannah Rabinowitz, CNN
(CNN) — The Justice Department announced charges Monday against a third person who allegedly participated in a firebombing attack on a California Planned Parenthood last spring.
Xavier Batten, 21, of Brooksville, Florida, was arrested Friday and is being held in custody, according to prosecutors. He is charged alongside Chance Brannon, a 23-year-old active-duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton, and Tibet Ergul, 21, of Irvine, California.
All three men are charged with conspiracy and malicious destruction of property by fire and explosion, each of which carries between five and 20 years in prison. Brannon and Ergul are facing additional charges for possession of an unregistered destructive device and intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility.
Brannon has pleaded not guilty, according to his lawyer Kate Corrigan. Ergul’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment but was also scheduled to be arraigned Monday. Batten has not entered a formal plea, and a lawyer is not yet listed on his docket.
According to prosecutors, the men worked together to attack the Planned Parenthood. Brannon and Ergul allegedly identified which building they wanted to attack and bought materials to assemble a Molotov cocktail. Brannon and Ergul allegedly put the Molotov cocktail together, while Batten “advised and directed” Brannon on the process, according to prosecutors.
On March 13, prosecutors said, the two threw the Molotov cocktail at the door of the clinic.
“Security videos described in court documents show that two men wearing hooded sweatshirts and face masks approached the Planned Parenthood facility at approximately 1 a.m. the day of the attack, ignited a device, and threw the flaming device at the front door of the building,” the Justice Department said in a news release Monday.
The release quotes court documents, saying that “the device landed against a southern wall next to the glass door and erupted into a fire, which spread up the wall and across the ceiling above the glass door.”
The Planned Parenthood was forced to close the next morning and cancel around 30 appointments. CNN previously reported that nobody was injured in the attack.
The US Marine Corps previously declined to comment to CNN, citing the ongoing legal matter.
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