In August 2019, Instinct reported that a 23-year-old Las Vegas man, who identified as a white supremacist, had been arrested after telling an undercover FBI agent he planned to firebomb a gay bar and synagogue.
The young man, Conor Climo, has now been sentenced to two years in prison. Climo will serve the remainder of his sentence at a facility in Louisiana near his grandparents after receiving credit for time served since his arrest. Federal prosecutors had originally requested a 30-month prison sentence.
Climo was also ordered to undergo mental health treatment, take psychological medication, attend anger management classes and have no contact with any hate groups.
Upon his release, he will be confined to his home for six months with electronic monitoring. Following that, he will serve another 3 years on probation.
“I was truly wrong for all of this,” Climo told U.S. District Judge James Mahan prior to his sentencing according to the Associated Press. “I even have come to really regret everything, everything that I was involved with.”
Climo’s attorney, Paul Riddle, said his client is aware he had been headed down a “very dark path,” but “he’s not on that path anymore and he’s not the same person that was arrested.”
The FBI began investigating Climo in April 2019 after learning of his encrypted internet chats with members of Feuerkrieg Division, an international offshoot of a U.S.-based neo-Nazi group called Atomwaffen Division.
Climo told FBI agents that he joined Feuerkrieg Division but left because he “became bored with the group and their inaction,” according to a court filing.
Climo’s home was searched after discussing his bombing plans with an FBI agent and informant. While executing the warrant, officials found multiple rifles and bomb components. After his arrest, he admitted to discussing plans to attack the Anti-Defamation League, as well as conducting surveillance on a local gay bar in preparation for a future attack.
Climo pleaded guilty in February to possession of an unregistered firearm in connection to the bomb-making materials found. His sentencing, originally scheduled for the spring, had been delayed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Back in 2016, local news station KTNV filed a report on Climo, 20-years-old at the time, for ‘patrolling’ his Northwest Las Vegas neighborhood wearing battle gear and carrying an assault rifle and survival knife.
“I’ll pretty much stay within constitutional bounds when I’m doing this,” he told KTNV at the time.
“Pretty much stay within constitutional bounds???”
He also told the reporter that, even though he had no formal training in patrolling or dealing with possibly tense situations, he would be looking for ‘suspicious activity,’ which he defined as “people outside when they’re not supposed to be.”
