Medina Sentenced To 25 Years In Aventura Jewish Center Bomb Plot

MIAMI, FL – A Broward County man has been sentenced to 25 years in jail in connection with a plan to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in Spring of 2016. Forty-one-year-old James Gonzalo Medina planned to use explosives in his attack, according to federal prosecutors. The plot was foiled by undercover federal agents, who supplied Medina with a phony bomb.

The sentence was announced on Tuesday by Attorney Acting U.S. Attorney Benjamin G. Greenberg for the Southern District of Florida. The sentence was handed down by Robert N. Scola, Jr. earlier in the day.

"Acts of bigotry and hatred are evil and have no place in our society," U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in an earlier statement. "One of the top priorities of this Department of Justice is reducing violent crime, and you can be sure that this includes hate crime. We will not tolerate this repugnant lawlessness, and we will be vigilant in prosecuting hate crime offenders to the fullest extent of the law."

Medina pleaded guilty in August to a federal hate crime and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction stemming for the attack that was planned for March and April of 2016, according to federal prosecutors.

"Medina took steps to prepare for this attack including conducting surveillance of the Jewish Center," prosecutors said. "On April 29, 2016, Medina took possession of what he believed to be an explosive device, obtained from a Southern Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force agent, and approached the Jewish Center on foot with the device in hand, intending to commit the attack."

During the 2012 presidential election, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani spoke at the Jewish Center on behalf of then GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

“The defendant’s concrete steps to commit an act of domestic terror against a place of worship because of the congregants’ religious beliefs posed a grave threat to all residents of Miami-Dade County,” said Greenberg. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners will investigate and prosecute terrorism and hate-inspired violent crimes motivated by a victim’s religion, race, ethnicity, sexual preference, or gender identity.”

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Southern Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Marc Anton and Michael Thakur of the Southern District of Florida, with assistance from Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Counsel Steve Curran and National Security Division Trial Attorney Taryn Meeks.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky