Man sentenced to 4 years in prison for throwing Molotov cocktail during LA immigration protest

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 23-year-old man was sentenced to four years in federal prison after he admitted throwing a Molotov cocktail at Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies during protests against immigration raids across the region last spring.

Emiliano Garduno Galvez, a Mexican national who authorities say is in the U.S. illegally, pleaded guilty in October to possessing an unregistered destructive device and civil disorder connected to his actions June 7 in Paramount, a city near LA. He was sentenced on Friday.

Sheriff’s deputies responded to a large protest that day at which demonstrators were throwing rocks and other items outside a Home Depot where U.S. Border Patrol agents had gathered.

According to the plea agreement obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Galvez admitted that he went behind a wall, lit the Molotov cocktail and then hurled it toward where he had seen the deputies.

The incendiary device landed in a grassy area near the foot of a protester and about 15 feet (4.5 meters) from the deputies, according to the plea agreement. Galvez said he then ran away.

Galvez threw the device “intending to obstruct, interfere with, and impede the LASD deputies who were lawfully engaged in performance of official duties,” according to the agreement.

“This defendant’s reckless behavior threatened the lives and safety of law enforcement officers and that of a lawful protester,” Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement.

Galvez’s federal public defenders asked for a more lenient sentence of three years, saying in a sentencing memo that he now “readily admits and acknowledges how serious his actions were and the harm that could have ensued,” according to the Times.

Many demonstrations against the June immigration crackdown were peaceful, with marchers chanting slogans and carrying signs, though others led to clashes with police, hundreds of arrests and the use of chemical irritants to disperse crowds.