A 22-year-old man from Irvine pleaded guilty on Feb. 29 to having participated in the firebombing of a Costa Mesa Planned Parenthood clinic two years ago.
Tibet Ergul used a Molotov cocktail to firebomb the clinic on March 13, 2022. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to damage an energy facility and intentional damage to a reproductive services facility.
Ergul faces a prison term of five to six years and six months, with a supervised release period of three years and $1,000 in restitution fees for damage to the building. His sentencing is due May 30.
The two other men involved in the firebombing, Chance Brannon, 24, and Xavier Batten, 21, have also pleaded guilty.
Brannon pleaded guilty on Nov. 30, 2023, to federal charges of conspiracy, malicious destruction of property by fire and explosive, possession of an unauthorized destructive device and intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility.
Batten, who conspired with Brannon to carry out the attack with a Molotov cocktail, pleaded guilty in January 2024 to possession of a destructive device.
Prosecutors said that Batten taught Batten how to make the Molotov cocktail, and Brannon and Ergul put it together on March 12, 2022, in Ergul’s garage.
Brannon and Ergul ignited and threw the device at the clinic the next day.
Brannon and Ergul were planning to bomb another clinic after a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that struck down abortion rights. Batten and Brannon had discussed in May 2022 how to firebomb another clinic.
Brannon advised Batten to put his “phone in airplane mode, plan ‘quick escape routes,’ avoid being identified on camera and obscure his face and skin color,” according to the plea agreement.
After the firebombing, Ergul “bragged” to a friend and added he “wished he could have recorded the ignition,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathrynne Seiden said at the Feb. 29 hearing.
Both Brannon and Ergul had planned to start a “race war” by damaging an electrical substation to disrupt Orange County’s power grid, according to prosecutors. Ergul had planned to carry out the attack with a Molotov cocktail as well.
Prosecutors say that they found a plan and gear list to target a Southern California Edison substation in Brannon’s thumb drive.
Brannon and Ergul had searched “how to attack the parking lot or electrical room of Dodger Stadium on a night celebration LGBTQ pride”. They were arrested two days before the event took place.
Brannon and Ergul were both also charged with one count of possession of an unregistered destructive device and one misdemeanor count of intentional damage to a reproductive health services facility, with sentences from five to 20 years in federal prison, according to prosecutors.
City News Service contributed to this report.
