A 22-year-old former nursing student was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole Thursday for bursting into a Southern California synagogue on the last day of Passover in 2019 with a semiautomatic rifle, killing one worshipper and wounding three others.
An agreement with prosecutors spared John T. Earnest the death penalty, but the hearing gave victims and families their first opportunity to address the killer directly during victim-impact statements in San Diego Superior Court.
Earnest’s attorney said Earnest wanted to make a statement but Judge Peter Deddeh refused, saying he did not want the hearing to become “a political forum” for white supremacist views.
