GRAND RAPIDS, MI— A 23-year-old Houghton man was sentenced to 26 months in prison for conspiring to victimize Black and Jewish people and for defacing a Hancock synagogue.
Nathan Weeden was convicted by a federal jury in January of conspiracy against rights and damage to religious property. In 2019, he and other members of White Supremacist group The Base used an encrypted messaging platform to discuss vandalizing property associated with African Americans and Jewish Americans.
As part of the plan, Weeden spray-painted swastikas and symbols associated with The Base on the outside walls of Temple Jacob in Hancock.
In its Sentencing Memorandum, the government urged the Court to sentence Weeden to at least 36 months’ incarceration, considering the nature and extent of his hate crimes, his persistent dedication to violent neo-Nazi ideology, his prior illegal conversion of a rifle to a fully automatic weapon, his lack of remorse, the danger he poses to the community, and the need for deterrence.
