Jaime Tran, Hate Crime, California 2023

• LOS ANGELES — Former Riverside resident Jaime Tran, 29, has agreed to plead guilty to hate crimes and firearms offenses after shooting two Jewish men last year in the Pico-Robertson area of Los Angeles.

Tran is expected to plead guilty to two counts of hate crimes with intent to kill and two counts of using, carrying, and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence before United States District Judge George H. Wu in the coming weeks.

Upon entering his guilty plea, Tran will face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison for each hate crime count, and a maximum of life imprisonment and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years for each firearm count.

Under the plea agreement, which prosecutors filed today, Tran would receive a prison sentence of between 35 years and 40 years.

Tran developed and espoused antisemitic beliefs and made violent threats toward Jewish people, including calling a former classmate “I want you dead, Jew” and “Someone is going to kill you, Jew.”

Tran was prohibited from purchasing firearms as a result of previous mental health holds, but in January 2023 in Phoenix, Tran asked a third party to buy two firearms for him, which he then used to shoot a Jewish victim wearing a yarmulke as he was leaving religious services at a synagogue on February 15, 2023.

“This defendant sought to murder two men simply because they were Jewish,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “Rather than allow these horrific crimes to divide us, however, our community came together and swiftly brought the perpetrator to justice. Hate and intolerance have no place in America. We will remain firm in our approach of using all the tools at our disposal to aggressively prosecute acts of hate.”

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