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Two members of a neo-Nazi group called The Base were each sentenced Thursday to nine years in prison more than a year after they discussed bringing firearms to a pro-gun rally in Virginia.
FBI agents arrested former Canadian Armed Forces reservist Patrik Jordan Mathews, U.S. Army veteran Brian Mark Lemley Jr. of Elkton, Maryland, and a third member of a group in January 2020, days before the event in Richmond, Virginia's capital. Matthews and Lemley pleaded guilty in June to weapons charges. Both had recently lived in Delaware.
A third co-defendant, William Garfield Bilbrough IV, previously pleaded guilty to helping Matthews illegally cross into the United States in 2019.
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This image from a Jan. 1, 2020 surveillance video and released in a U.S. Attorney detention memorandum, shows Brian Mark Lemley Jr, right, and Patrik Mathews leaving a store in Delaware where they purchased ammunition and paper shooting targets. The pair, along with William Garfield Bilbrough IV, plotted to carry out "essentially a paramilitary strike" at a Virginia gun rights rally, a federal prosecutor said. (U.S. Attorney via AP)
On Thursday, a federal judge in Maryland said he concluded the pair intended to engage in terrorist activity.
Therefore, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang applied a "terrorism enhancement" to their sentences. He said conversations of Matthews and Lemley recorded by the FBI captured their "virulence" and "passion" in their willingness to kill people and bring down the U.S. government.
Part of their plan was to "create (expletive) some instability while the Virginia situation is happening," "derail some rail lines," "…shut down the highways," and "shut down the rest of the roads," federal prosecutors said. They also discussed murdering a law enforcement officer in an effort to obtain gear for the Virginia plan, authorities said.
"The court rejects the notion that this was merely talk among friends," Chuang said.
Matthews, 29, said he regretted befriending "the wrong people."
"I got involved with people who were extreme, very extreme, and hateful to the point of action," he told the judge.
This image shows Brian Mark Lemley Jr, driving, and Patrik Mathews, passenger seat, passing through a toll booth near Norfolk, Va., en route to Georgia. Both men were sentenced to nine years in prison Thursday in connection with a plan to attack a Virginia gun rally. (U.S. Attorney via AP, File)
Lemley, 35, said he understood how the recordings could upset some people.
"The things I said are horrible and don't reflect who I really am or who my family raised me to be," he said. "Murder was never in my heart. Only foolish dreams of war glory and valor."
Defense attorneys said the men never developed any specific plans for violence. The also argued that an undercover FBI agent who visited the pair tried to pressure the two "damaged military veterans" into developing a plan for violence at the Virginia rally.
Lemley served as an Army cavalry scout in Iraq before he returned home and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Matthews fled to Canada after the Winnipeg Free Press published a story about a reporter who infiltrated The Base. He then fled Canada and illegally entered the United States, prosecutors said. Afterward, Lemley and Bilbrough picked him up in Michigan.
They all attended military-style training camps at a Georgia property where Matthews lived for a time after crossing the border.
Patrik Mathews (Royal Canadian Mounted Police via AP)
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The investigation was part of a federal crackdown on extremist groups. In January 2020, authorities in Georgia and Wisconsin arrested four other men linked to The Base. More than a dozen people linked to Atomwaffen or an offshoot called Feuerkrieg Division have been charged with crimes in federal court since the group’s formation in 2016.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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