SANTA ANA, California — A former U.S. Marine was sentenced Monday to nine years in prison for bombing a Planned Parenthood clinic in Southern California in 2022, federal prosecutors said.
Chance Brannon, 24, pleaded guilty in November to four felonies, including malicious destruction of property by fire and explosives and malicious damage to a reproductive health service,
Brannon, of San Juan Capistrano, California, also admitted to plotting additional attacks on a second Planned Parenthood clinic, an Edison substation in Southern California and an LGBTQ pride night celebration at Dodger Stadium, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Brannon was an active duty Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton at the time of the Costa Mesa clinic bombing on March 13, 2022. Surveillance footage showed Brannon and another person throwing a Molotov cocktail at the front door of the medical facility . The clinic was closed at the time and no one was injured.
During the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said Brannon “engaged in vicious and indefensible domestic terrorism.”
He has been in federal custody since his arrest in June 2023.
According to his plea agreement, Brannon conspired with two others to use an explosive device to destroy a commercial property.
His co-defendants, Tibet Ergul and Xavier Batten, have pleaded guilty to the charges against them. They are scheduled to be sentenced in May.