We have a verdict. What will this mean for the future of dissent?
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After a day and a half of deliberation, the jury returns with a decision. Pre-Sentencing Report (PSR) will be April 30 followed by sentencing on June 18, 2026 at 9:00 am.
After nearly three weeks of trial, both sides delivered closing arguments to the jury in the Prairieland case. The prosecution urged the jury to find all eight defendants charged with conspiracy guilty under a conspiracy and Pinkerton liability theory. Meanwhile nine defense attorneys argued that the government presented evidence, but not proof, that the defendants attended a noise demonstration — not an ambush — and that political beliefs and legal gun ownership are not crimes. The jury will begin deliberations on March 12 at 9:00 AM.
Both sides rested and closed their cases after a day dominated by the prosecution’s effort to connect the defendants to Antifa ideology through social media, phone extractions, and chat messages. Judge Pittman questioned the relevance of the Antifa evidence.
Six witnesses testified: cooperating witness Nathan Baumann (cross-examination on plea deal circumstances); forensic witnesses on firearms, fingerprints, and DNA; ATF explosives specialist Steven Brenneman (consumer fireworks as explosives under 18 U.S.C. 844); and David Kyle Shideler, the prosecution’s designated Antifa expert (history of Antifa, symbology, zines, affinity groups, black bloc). Brenneman and Shideler faced extended cross-examination. Judge Pittman sustained a Confrontation Clause objection, admonished counsel, and intervened with questions from the bench during Shideler’s testimony.
The prosecution’s second cooperating witness, Susan Kent, broke down on the stand under defense cross-examination that exposed coercive plea conditions and the government’s role in labeling defendants as an “Antifa cell” — a term Kent did not use on her own and struggled to define. Cooperating witness John Thomas similarly could not recall who he had identified as “Antifa” until the prosecution showed him a government-prepared document.
Lynette Sharp’s cross-examination became the strongest moment yet for the defense, as she testified the defendants are a group of LGBTQ friends bound by shared identity rather than an “Antifa organization,” that no one intended to harm police, and that her plea was coerced under horrible jail conditions — prompting Judge Pittman to intervene and have her consult her attorney mid-testimony. In the afternoon, second cooperating witness Seth Sikes described the event as a noise demonstration that went wrong, said Evetts was “too nice to hurt anyone,” confirmed the Sotos were not SRA members, and revealed that his own plea…
The prosecution’s physical evidence case continued to crumble as a 57-minute SWAT search of Savanna Batten’s apartment yielded nothing but a map, a fireworks cooler was left unsecured at the crime scene for 12 hours, and an FBI counterterrorism agent of 22 years admitted he had to Google what an “antifa flag” looks like. Texas Ranger Tyler Williamson testified about Meagan Morris’s interviews describing the event as a noise demo gone wrong, and the day ended with the first cooperating witness, Lynette Sharp, taking the stand in handcuffs — identifying all nine defendants and tearfully telling them “I love them.”
Judge Pittman denied the defense’s self-defense motion, ruling that no reasonable person would believe unlawful force was being used at Prairieland before Song fired. The day was dominated by a parade of FBI agents testifying about searches of defendants’ homes and vehicles — yielding mostly legal items like zines, political stickers, and protest literature — while defense cross-examinations exposed warrantless searches, possible cross-contamination of evidence, and agents who couldn’t define basic terms like “anarcho-communist” or identify an antifa flag without Googling it.
Day 6 featured damaging cross-examination of the prosecution’s case, including testimony about procedural failures in evidence handling, a key witness acknowledging it would be reasonable to shoot back if pointed at with a gun, and exposure of the FBI translator’s selective translation of jail calls omitting context and emotional nuance.
Court proceedings focused on the police response to the officer shooting incident at Prairieland Detention Center, including testimony from numerous responding officers (Zapata, Solis, Mellow, Bell, Graham, and others) and a crime scene investigator detailing the detention of five individuals, discovery of weapons and tactical gear in a red minivan, and recovery of an AR-style rifle on the highway.