Nine defendants have been sentenced to 30, 50, 70, and 100 years.
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Cooperating defendant Susan Kent was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison, to run concurrently with a related Johnson County state case, after the court granted a downward-variance motion and found her less culpable than several co-defendants. The court recommended placement at a Bureau of Prisons medical facility and directed attention to her need for mental-health medication.
Seven more Prairieland co-defendants were sentenced on July 1, receiving terms from 22 months (Nathan Bauman) to 50 years (Ines Soto), with both judges granting downward variances for the defendants who pleaded guilty and cooperated while continuing to frame the July 4, 2025 events as conduct that “could have been an absolute slaughter.” Judge Pittman also used the hearings to condemn threats and doxxing directed at cooperating defendants, prosecutors, and judges.
Section 1. Summary Date of proceedings: June 23, 2026 (Tuesday), beginning ~8:11–8:25 a.m.Court: U.S. District Court, Northern District of Texas — Fort Worth DivisionCase: United States v. Hill et al. (caption to confirm; case/docket numbers not reliably captured)Judges: Sentencing ran simultaneously in two courtrooms — Excerpt All eight Prairieland co-defendants sentenced on June 23 received lengthy federal prison terms — from 30 years for Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada to 100 years for Benjamin Hanil Song — after both judges denied every post-trial motion for acquittal or new trial and overruled nearly all sentencing-guideline objections. Judges in both courtrooms framed the…
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.”