(JTA) — A California man who wrote “kill lists” of prominent Jews pleaded guilty to threatening three houses of worship in Orange County.
Nicholas Wesley Rose, 28, of Irvine, was sentenced Friday for carrying a loaded firearm not registered to him and three civil rights counts in relation to making the threats. Other felony charges were dropped.
His parents contacted the police last year after he said he wanted to “get a fun and killed some Jews,” The OC Register reported. Rose had composed lists of Jews he wanted to kill and threatened and visited a synagogue in Irvine that he wanted to attack. He also threatened and visited two churches, in Irvine and Lake Forest, that had expressed sympathies for the Jewish community.
He was sentenced to 825 days in jail, one year in residential mental health treatment and five years probation.
Rose’s lawyer, Brian Gurwitz, said his client was suffering from mental illness.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer decried Rose’s ideology in a statement.
“There is no place for hate,” Spitzer said. “He is a danger to society and every resident of Orange County should be aware of the threat he poses.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.