An Irvine man pleaded guilty Friday to charges alleging he visited churches and synagogues while researching how to get away with murder in an anti-Semitic plot uncovered after his parents contacted authorities last year, prosecutors said Friday.
Nicholas Wesley Rose, 28, was in possession of a long-range rifle, hundreds of rounds of .22-caliber ammunition and a stash of white supremacist writings when he was arrested last April, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said.
On Friday he pleaded guilty to one felony count of carrying a loaded firearm that was not registered to him and three misdemeanor counts of violating civil rights, officials said.
Rose was subsequently sentenced to 825 days in jail, one year in a residential mental health treatment program and five years of formal probation with GPS monitoring.
He was also ordered to stay 500 yards away from the congregations he targeted with threats and to cooperate with probation officers regarding additional mental health treatment, the DA’s office said.
Rose lodged threats against the St. Barbara Russian Orthodox Church in Lake Forest and the Beth Jacob Congregation and St. Paul’s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine because of their connection to the Jewish community, according to a felony complaint.
He allegedly used the internet to conduct extensive research on the congregations, and visited them in person beginning December 2017 until his arrest.
Rose also searched the web for white supremacist ideology, anti-Semitism and the effective range of a .22-caliber long-range rifle, prosecutors said.
Rose’s parents grew concerned and called authorities on April 16, 2018, after he said he planned to “get a gun and kill some Jews,” the DA’s office said.
Among the items seized from his Irvine apartment were a journal he filled with white supremacist and anti-Semitic writings, including a set of steps titled “killing my first Jew” and a “kill list” of prominent members of the Jewish community, and other anti-Semitic literature.
Authorities say they also found note cards referencing two of the churches targeted, including “a list of negative characteristics of each church, specifically in regards to their sympathies to Jewish people.”
Alongside the silenced rifle and ammunition seized from his car were a shovel and a sleeping bag, officials said.
“There is no place for hate,” O.C. DA Todd Spitzer said in statement. “He is a danger to society and every resident of Orange County should be aware of the threat he poses.”