A North Dakota man who killed a teenager with his vehicle in what authorities initially stated was a politically motivated attack because he believed the boy to be a “Republican extremist” was sentenced to just five years in prison.
Shannon Brandt was initially charged with vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly accident after striking and killing 18-year-old Cayler Ellingson at a street dance in McHenry, North Dakota last September.
The man pled guilty to manslaughter. On Friday, a state district court judge sentenced him to five years in prison with credit for nearly a year served.
Brandt will also serve three years of supervised probation and his driver’s license will be suspended for a year. He had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison.
5 yrs for killing a teen, while pushing over a fence, gets a J6er
17 yrs. Is this the new justice in America?— George Sanferd (@GSanferd95834) September 10, 2023
Initial Claims That He Targeted ‘Republican Extremist’
Court papers, according to the Grand Forks Herald, indicated that Brandt was the one who alerted authorities through a 911 call that he had struck the teenager.
In that call, the suspect allegedly claimed Ellingson “was part of a Republican extremist group and was calling people to come get Brandt after a political argument.”
“He got on my vehicle and I couldn’t get him away from me,” Brandt said of Ellingson according to an affidavit. “He was threatening me. He was saying something about some Republican extremist group, saying, ‘I thought he was part of us.’”
A review of the 911 call transcript, according to Fox News, showed that wasn’t the case, while officials would later state that there was no evidence to support claims that the teenager was an actual “Republican extremist.”
The phrase, though, was generated from somewhere for an affidavit to mention it specifically.
Brandt’s charges were at first upgraded from criminal vehicular homicide to murder with a dangerous weapon when an investigation revealed that he had been drinking, had admitted to the dispatcher that it was “more than” an accident, and had fled the scene of the crime.
Foster County State’s Attorney Kara Brinster, however, reduced the charges eight months after Ellingson’s death to manslaughter based on new evidence.
The North Dakota State Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that the incident was an accident.
Cayler Ellingson’s family questioned why Shannon Brandt didn’t back away instead of driving at the teenager. Brandt’s attorney said the 42-year-old has autism and felt his life was threatened after hearing Ellingson was calling a posse to come after him. https://t.co/c5bSQydAG5
— April Baumgarten (@aprilbaumsaway) September 8, 2023
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January 6th Rioters Sentenced To Far Longer Prison Terms
Critics of a two-tiered justice system in America were quick to point out that running over and killing a teenager gets you a far more lenient prison sentence than taking part in a riot at the Capitol.
Henry “Enrique” Tarrio was just sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the January 6th riot — the longest sentence yet in the January 6th cases.
Tarrio, the former leader of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys, was found guilty in May of seditious conspiracy related to the Capitol riot.
He wasn’t physically at the Capitol that day because he was arrested days earlier for burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner and bringing high-capacity rifle magazines into the district.
“They told me to LIE about President Trump in order to indict him. I told them to pound sand.”
We all know what happened here
A man who wasn’t even in DC on J6 was given 22 years in prison for the crime of refusing to help the DOJ frame Trump
https://t.co/CqxTHodR1q— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) September 9, 2023
Several others have been handed longer prison sentences for their role in the Capitol riot than the one one given to the North Dakota man who killed a teenager with his vehicle.
Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right militia group Oath Keepers, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after being found guilty of seditious conspiracy.
At least five others charged for crimes committed that day received over a decade in prison time.
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