SEATTLE — A Washington man was found guilty Wednesday in a plot that targeted journalists, including a KING 5 reporter, and members of the Anti-Defamation League.
Kaleb Cole, of Arlington, was found guilty on five counts including conspiracy, three counts of mailing threatening communications and one count of interference with federally protected activities.
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes after the two-day trial, which began Monday.
Cole is believed to be the leader of the Washington chapter of the Atomwaffen Division, a small but extreme neo-Nazi hate group.
The charges relate to a plot to intimidate journalists and advocates that Cole and three others wanted to threaten in retaliation for their work exposing anti-Semitism. The group delivered threatening posters to the homes of the recipients, focusing on people who are Jewish or journalists of color.
KING 5 investigator Chris Ingalls received one of the posters after his reporting on the Atomwaffen Division in 2019.
Conspiracy is punishable by up to five years in prison, mailing a threatening communication could carry five years and interference with a federally protected activity is punishable with up to 10 years.
Three others involved in the conspiracy have been sentenced.
Another Atomwaffen member, 25-year-old Cameron Shea, was sentenced to three years in prison in August. Johnny Roman Garza of Queen Creek, Arizona, was sentenced in December to 16 months in prison for affixing one of the posters on the bedroom window of a Jewish journalist. Taylor Parker-Dipeppe of Spring Hill, Florida, who attempted to deliver a flier but left it at the wrong address, received no prison time. A judge found Parker-Dipeppe, whose father and stepfather severely abused him, had suffered enough.
