LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man who shot two Jewish men outside synagogues in hate-motivated attacks will plead guilty in return of a sentence of around 40 years, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Jaime Tran, 29, could have faced up to life in prison in the February 2023 shootings that wounded two men, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said.
Under a plea deal, once Tran pleads guilty he faces 35 to 40 years, the office said.
“This defendant sought to murder two men simply because they were Jewish,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement.
Tran searched “kosher market” on the internet and then went to the Pico-Robertson section of Los Angeles and shot a man who was wearing a yarmulke in the back as the victim was leaving a synagogue on Feb. 15, 2023, Tran acknowledged in a statement of facts as part of the plea deal.
The next day he returned to the neighborhood and shot another Jewish man as he crossed the street. That man was also wearing a yarmulke and leaving a synagogue.
Tran had threatened to kill Jewish people before. He left dental school in 2018 “after making hateful statements about other students whom he perceived to be Jewish” and later sent messages to classmates that included threats to kill Jews, the plea agreement says.
In November 2022, around two months before the shootings, Tran sent out an antisemitic flyer that said the “covid agenda” was Jewish, according to the document.
Tran has been under mental health holds in the past, the plea agreement says. That prevented him from buying a gun himself, but in January 2023, he paid someone in Arizona $1,500 to buy two guns for him — a .380-caliber pistol and a Zastava model M70 rifle, Tran acknowledged in the plea deal.
An attorney for Tran did not immediately comment on the case or the plea agreement Tuesday.
Tran has agreed to plead to all the counts against him — 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, the U.S, attorney’s office said. The hate crimes carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
A date for the plea to be entered did not appear in online court records.
