A man was sentenced four years in federal prison Friday after he admitted to lighting a Molotov cocktail and throwing it at Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies during a protest last year against immigration raids.
Emiliano Garduño Gálvez, 23, pleaded guilty in October to one count each of possessing an unregistered destructive device and obstructing law enforcement during a civil disorder. Federal authorities said Gálvez is an immigrant from Mexico in the U.S. illegally, having entered more than a decade ago and staying beyond the time permitted in his visa.
“This defendant’s reckless behavior threatened the lives and safety of law enforcement officers and that of a lawful protester,” Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement. “My office remains steadfast in its efforts to prosecute and punish those who commit acts of violence against others.”
The events occurred in June, when Border Patrol agents convened near Home Depot in Paramount, drawing protesters.
According to the U.S. attorney’s office, the group threw objects like rocks and cinder block chunks at federal and local law enforcement officers, and set off fireworks. Authorities declared the protest an unlawful assembly.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Gálvez was hiding behind a stone wall when he lit and threw a Molotov cocktail toward sheriff’s deputies, who were engaging in crowd control. The incendiary device landed in a grassy area near a protester’s foot, about 15 feet from sheriff’s deputies. Gálvez then fled the area.
Federal prosecutors had argued in a sentencing memorandum for Gálvez to serve a longer sentence — more than seven years — because of the seriousness of his offenses. Video recordings appear to show that the flaming wick separated from the bottle after he threw it.
“Defendant endangered everyone — law enforcement and civilians in the area — and is lucky that, despite his actions, no one was injured,” the prosecutors’ sentencing memo said.
Gálvez’s federal public defenders asked for a more lenient sentence of three years, saying in a sentencing memo that he was “caught up in a historic social movement and under the influence of Brandy and nitrous oxide,” and now “readily admits and acknowledges how serious his actions were and the harm that could have ensued.”
