A federal jury in Texas convicted nine defendants on Friday of providing material support to terrorists and other charges stemming from a Fourth of July assault on the Prairieland detention center outside Fort Worth, where a police officer was shot in the shoulder and survived.
The convictions mark the first criminal prosecution in which the government alleged that individuals operated as part of an antifa cell. Attorney General Pam Bondi wasted no time framing the outcome as a down payment on a broader campaign.
"Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization that has been allowed to flourish in Democrat-led cities – not under President Trump."
Bondi added in her statement that the verdict "will not be the last as the Trump administration systematically dismantles antifa and finally halts their violence on America's streets."
According to the trial record, a group of demonstrators dressed in dark clothing arrived at the Prairieland ICE detention center just after 10:30 p.m. on the Fourth of July last year. Their stated plan was to set off fireworks in a noise demonstration meant to show solidarity with detainees inside the facility.
Shortly after they arrived, two or three of the protesters broke away from the larger group and began spray painting cars in the parking lot, vandalizing a guard shack, slashing tires on a government van, and breaking a security camera. Two ICE detention guards came out and told the protesters to stop. A police officer arrived on the scene shortly after and drew his weapon at one of the individuals allegedly doing vandalism. It is undisputed that only one person fired a weapon: defendant Benjamin Song, who was standing in a tree line with an AR-15 and struck the officer in the shoulder. The officer survived.
Song fled the scene and evaded authorities for 11 days before he was captured. Several other individuals were charged with helping him during that period, though their names and case details have not been publicly specified.
Nine defendants were tried together before U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who was nominated to the federal bench by President Trump in 2019. They faced a mix of charges including providing material support to terrorists, rioting, attempted murder, and firearms and explosive offenses, The Guardian reports.
The nine: Benjamin Song, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Savanna Batten, Ines Soto, Elizabeth Soto, and Daniel Sanchez-Estrada. Sanchez-Estrada was the only defendant who was not present at the protest. He was charged solely with corruptly concealing a document or record after prosecutors said he moved leftwing zines following the arrest of his wife, Maricela Rueda, on the Fourth of July.
The jury convicted all nine on every charge they faced, with limited but notable exceptions. Of the five defendants charged with attempted murder and firearms offenses, four were acquitted on those counts: Evetts, Hill, Morris, and Rueda. Song was acquitted on two of his attempted murder charges but convicted on a third and also convicted on the firearms charges.
According to the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Song faces a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. Evetts, Morris, Rueda, Batten, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto each face between 10 and 60 years. Sanchez-Estrada faces up to 40 years. All nine also face separate state charges, though those proceedings have not been publicly detailed.
Prosecutors alleged that the demonstration was not a protest at all but a coordinated ambush in which the defendants used fireworks to lure guards and police out of the facility and then attack them. They alleged the defendants were operating as an antifa cell and pointed to a web of circumstantial evidence to support that theory.
Among the evidence prosecutors presented: the defendants took steps to prevent their cell phones from being tracked; they communicated on Signal, a widely used encrypted messaging application, under pseudonyms and with auto-deleting messages; and they wore dark clothing that prosecutors at times described as "tactical" gear. The government also showed jurors zines and reading lists with incendiary titles that were seized from the defendants.
Prosecutors further noted that the demonstrators brought a cache of weapons to the scene, including rifles and bulletproof vests, though all but one firearm was left in the van they used to carpool to Prairieland. Some of the defendants met through self-defense classes, the Socialist Rifle Association, and a leftwing book club.
Prosecutor Shawn Smith told jurors during his closing statement that the defendants' political beliefs were not why they were on trial.
"They're here because they used these tactics that assisted in the ambush of a cop."
Defense attorneys countered that their clients planned a peaceful protest that went awry. The defendants said they brought legally purchased firearms strictly for self-defense. Defense lawyers also emphasized that much of the dark clothing worn by defendants could be purchased at a retail store like Walmart.
The ambush theory was undercut at times by the government's own witnesses. Several cooperating witnesses who took plea deals testified that they were surprised when the protest turned violent.
Cody Cofer, an attorney representing Hill, who was acquitted on the attempted murder and firearms charges, said the split verdict showed the jury rejected the most aggressive prosecution theory.
"We are thankful that the jury could see through the Government's fear mongering Antifa 'ambush' narrative. We are afraid that our client's guilty verdicts for Riot and related charges resulted from a compromise during deliberations or failure to consider our client's individual conduct."
Blake Burns, an attorney for Elizabeth Soto, put it more bluntly during his closing statement to the jury.
"The government is asking you to put protesters in prison as terrorists. You are the only people who can stop that."
Christopher Weinbel, Sanchez-Estrada's attorney and a military veteran who said he had been deployed several times in defense of the country, expressed disbelief at the outcome.
"The US lost today with this verdict."
The material support statute at the center of this case does not require any relationship between a defendant and a designated terrorist organization. It simply requires that a person assist in carrying out a list of specific federal crimes. In this case, prosecutors said the underlying offenses were damaging government property and attempting to kill law enforcement.
That makes the antifa designation largely irrelevant to the legal question the jury had to answer. Judge Pittman appeared to acknowledge as much near the close of trial when he asked prosecutors why antifa should even appear in his instructions to the jury.
"Whether it's antifa or the Methodist Women's Auxiliary of Weatherford, why does it matter?"
The Justice Department nonetheless highlighted the antifa connection in press releases and public statements throughout the prosecution. Following the death of Charlie Kirk last year, Trump administration officials vowed to pursue leftwing groups and designated antifa as a domestic terrorist group.
The DFW Support Committee, a coalition supporting the defendants, posted on X that they were "heartbroken" by the verdict and pledged to continue fighting.
"Everything about this trial from beginning to end has proven what we have said all along: this is a sham trial, built on political persecution and ideological attacks coming from the top."
Sentencing dates have not been publicly announced. Investigators and prosecutors have not publicly detailed the pending state charges or the cases against individuals accused of helping Song during his 11 days on the run.
Whatever procedural battles remain, the core fact stands: a cop was shot at an ICE facility, and a federal jury held every defendant accountable for the violence that made it possible. That is the system working as designed, and it should not take a terrorism statute to remind the country that attacking law enforcement has consequences.
