SAN DIEGO, CA – According to journalist Andy Ngo, five more Antifa members have plead guilty to violent attacks during a riot back in January 2021.
For first time, prosecutors are attempting to break a network of violent #Antifa cells. San Diego DA charged 11 members—naming them explicitly as Antifa—for conspiring & carrying out assault that victimized 16, including minors. My report unmasks suspects: https://t.co/MH7KzM40Kx
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 10, 2021
At a court hearing on November 18th, five people accepted plea deals instead of going to trial. Each of them admitted to having a role in violent felonies where beachgoers, Trump supporters, and a dog were violently assaulted.
According to a tweet Ngo posted back in December 2021:
“The assaults were numerous and lasted a long time along the boardwalk in Pacific Beach, San Diego in January 2021. The #antifa members blinded targets with pepper spray before punching and kicking them.”
The plea deals for these five people were made more than a month after Antifa member Erich Louis “Nikki” Yach, who is transgender, made a plea deal in September.
Yach was the first of 11 defendants to plead guilty. Yach pleaded guilty to three violent felonies, including conspiracy to riot and was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison. Yach has a prior violent criminal record, which was a factor in the length of her sentencing. According to Ngo:
“In the five new plea deals, court paperwork indicates that Antifa members Christian Martinez, Bryan Rivera, Joseph Austin Gaskins, Samuel Howard Ogden, and Alexander Akridge-Jacobs each agreed to two years probation, a fourth amendment search waiver that includes electronic devices, and to not associate with any co-defendant.”
Ngo added:
“Any actual custody time will be determined by the judge at a sentencing hearing in three months. Until then, all five defendants will remain at liberty to their own recognizance.”
11 alleged members of #Antifa were charged in San Diego for carrying out a violent conspiracy to injure people. Jeremy Jonathan White was charged with felony animal cruelty, felony assault, felony conspiracy & more. His $200k bail was quickly covered. https://t.co/MH7KzM40Kx pic.twitter.com/oa86Sbjm9h
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) December 12, 2021
One of the defendants, 24-year-old Christian Martinez, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to riot with his Antifa co-defendants, plus felony assault on someone who is being identified as victim 7, likely to produce great bodily harm.
He also plead guilty to the special allegation that he was armed with a weapon and had a full can of Twisted Tea.
The prosecutor told the grand jury that Martinez threw the beverage can so hard at the victim that the can actually broke open.
His maximum possible sentence is four years and eight months in state prison, plus three years parole.
Bryan River, 21, also pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to riot with his Antifa co-defendants, plus count 9, that he assaulted the victim being identified as “S.M.”
Rivera’s attorney claimed that his client has no prior convictions and that he was under the age of 26 as “mitigating factors.”
Alexander Akridge-Jacobs, who is 32-years-old, admitted to felony conspiracy to riot with his Antifa co-defendants, plus count 21, assault on an “unidentified victim 4” by means likely to create great bodily injury.
Five more Antifa members plead guilty to felonies from Jan 2021 San Diego riot. https://t.co/TuhKHs6iL4
— Daily Optics (@DailyOptics) November 24, 2022
He also admitted to using a full drink can as a projectile weapon and that he was part of the attack with co-defendants Jesse Merel Cannon, Brian Cortez Lightfoot, and Bryan Rivera. As of this writing, Cannon and Lightfoot still plead not guilty to the charges against them.
Akridge-Jacobs’ maximum possible sentence is four years and eight months in state prison. Samuel Howard Ogden, a 24-year-old Antifa militant, pleaded guilty to one count of felony conspiracy to riot with fellow Antifa co-defendants, plus count 19, that Ogden assaulted the victim identified as “M.A.”
Ogden also admitted to a special allegation that he was armed with a walking stick as a weapon. His maximum possible sentence is four years and eight months in state prison.
Joseph Austin Gaskins, 22, was the only defendant among the five who did not admit conspiracy to riot. He pleaded guilty to count 27, that he assaulted “victim 7” with co-defendants Martinez and Faraz Talab by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury.
He also admitted that he was armed with a skateboard as a weapon. It was revealed that during the riot, Gaskins was out on bail for another violent felony crime in San Diego County. For that incident, he allegedly struck a cop in the head.
According to Ngo, in June, a grand jury indicted 11 alleged Antifa members accused of being part of a network of violent cells in southern California that planned and carried out brutal assaults during a riot in Pacific Beach on January 9, 2021.
Multiple weapons and firearms were seized from suspects during executed search warrants. Ngo said:
“This shocking conspiracy case involving Antifa has largely been ignored by establishment media which furthers the false claim that Antifa “doesn’t exist.”
Sentencing for the five who have pleaded guilty is scheduled for March 1, 2023 before Honorable Judge Daniel Goldstein.
Do you want to join our private family of first responders and supporters? Get unprecedented access to some of the most powerful stories that the media refuses to show you. Proceeds get reinvested into having active, retired and wounded officers, their families and supporters tell more of these stories. Click to check it out.
