Federal prosecutors secured 30–100 year sentences for eight Prairieland Nine protesters on domestic terrorism charges

On June 23, 2026, federal judges Mark Pittman and Reed O'Connor sentenced eight defendants in the Prairieland Nine case to federal prison terms totaling 450 combined years in Fort Worth, Texas. Benjamin Song, convicted of the attempted murder of Alvarado Police Lt. Thomas Gross, received 100 years; Maricela Rueda received 70 years; Cameron Arnold, Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Bradford Morris, and Elizabeth Soto each received 50 years; and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada received 30 years. The Department of Justice described the outcome as the first sentencing under Trump's September 2025 executive order designating antifa a domestic terrorist organization.

The case stemmed from a July 4, 2025 protest outside the Prairieland ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, during which Song fired a handgun that wounded Lt. Gross. Federal prosecutors charged the nine defendants under the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7) domestic terrorism framework — a framework issued by the Trump administration two months after the July 4 protest. Evidence introduced at the 12-day trial that began February 23, 2026, included that defendants wore black clothing, used the Signal encrypted messaging app, operated a printing press distributing antifascist literature, and had retweeted content affiliated with antifa. A federal jury convicted eight defendants on March 13, 2026, of providing material support for terrorism, with Song additionally convicted of attempted murder; Daniel Sanchez-Estrada was convicted of concealing documents.

Defense attorneys argued throughout the prosecution that the demonstration was intended as a peaceful noise protest in solidarity with immigrants detained inside the Prairieland facility, and that the terrorism designations were applied to political association rather than to violence. Defendants sought to overturn the jury verdict in a March 30 motion that was unresolved at the time of sentencing. The government's use of NSPM-7 — applied retroactively to conduct that predated the memorandum — to secure sentences of this magnitude for protest activity drew immediate civil liberties objections; critics noted that several defendants received 50-year terms for conduct such as moving boxes of political zines.

Updates

2026-07-01 — Ninth trial defendant and six plea defendants sentenced [5, 6]

On July 1, 2026, Judge O'Connor sentenced Ines Soto — arrested alongside his wife Elizabeth Soto and the other trial defendants on July 4, 2025 and convicted at the same March 2026 trial of rioting, providing material support to terrorism, and explosives charges — to 50 years in prison, matching several of the original eight sentences. The same day, Judge Pittman sentenced six co-defendants who had pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorism rather than stand trial: Rowan Gibson and Rebecca Morgan, who entered non-cooperating pleas, each received 15 years; Lynette Sharp and John Thomas, who cooperated with prosecutors, each received 110 months; Seth Sikes received 72 months; and Nathan Baumann, the only defendant to admit to property damage at the protest, received 22 months.

2026-07-06 — Additional cooperating defendant sentenced [5, 6]

On July 6, 2026, Judge O'Connor sentenced Susan Kent to six years in prison after she pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to terrorism in cooperation with prosecutors. With Kent's sentencing, UNICORN RIOT reported a cumulative total of approximately 562 years across all sixteen Prairieland-related defendants sentenced since June 23, 2026.