WARNING: This story includes graphic hate language prosecutors attribute to the accused.
Jaime Tran of Riverside was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison on Sept. 30.
He was accused of firing at two yarmulke-wearing men after they left a synagogue in the Pico-Robertson neighborhood of Los Angeles on Feb. 15 and 16, 2023.
Both men survived. One was hit in the lower back, and the other in the bicep.
Tran pleaded guilty on May 14 to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of discharging a firearm during a violent crime.
Tran’s sentencing memorandum attributed his crimes to a diagnosed mental illness, and asked for 35 years in light of his immediate plea acceptance.
The government’s sentencing memorandum recited Tran’s past aggressions and slurs told to classmates at the University of California, Los Angeles, dental school.
In July 2022, he took a loaded handgun to UCLA, according to the memorandum.
“Targeting people for death based solely on their religious and ethnic background brings back memories of the darkest chapters in human history,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada in a released statement.
A restitution hearing will be Dec. 2.
The plea deal admits that Tran made antisemitic comments at students at the dental school before he was expelled in 2018. It also admits to antisemitic threats sent through text, including, “Someone is going to kill you, Jew,” repeated four times, and comments telling the recipient to burn in an oven chamber.
The deal also admitted Tran emailed a flier to his classmates claiming “every single aspect of the COVID agenda is Jewish.”
Tran had multiple mental health holds that prevented him from legally purchasing firearms. In January 2023, in Phoenix, Tran asked someone to buy two firearms for him. He paid $1,500 in cash for a Khar Arms, .380 caliber pistol and a Zastava, model M70, semi-automatic rifle.
Police tracked his phone to find Tran in Cathedral City Feb. 17, two days after the shooting. He had fired a Zastava Arms AK-47 rifle outside a motel. He told police he had been homeless for a year, according to the complaint filed against him.
Case information
Kathrynne Seiden and Frances Lewis, assistant United States attorneys, prosecuted.
Katherine Corrigan of Newport Beach’s Corrigan Welbourn & Stokke defended.
Case No. 2:23-00098
Read the complaint here.
Read the plea agreement here.
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Riversider charged with synagogue shootings
Riversider pleads guilty to LA synagogue shootings
