Circuit upholds 45-year sentence for Army soldier who plotted satanic neo-Nazi ambush

MANHATTAN (CN) — The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a 45-year prison sentence for Ethan Melzer, a former U.S. Army private who pleaded guilty in 2022 to plotting a mass casualty attack on his own unit for a satanic, jihadist neo-Nazi cult.

Melzer appealed his sentence arguing that U.S. District Judge Gregory Woods put too much stock in Melzer’s “dislike of ‘Judeo and Christian values’” and gave him an unfairly long sentence as a result of constitutionally protected beliefs.

A trio of Second Circuit judges disagreed.

“Here, we conclude that the district court did not sentence Melzer based on any constitutionally-protected beliefs, nor could a reasonable observer believe otherwise based on the district court’s comments,” a panel of three circuit judges wrote in a seven-page ruling on Tuesday.

Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Melzer in 2020 with supporting terrorism and conspiring to murder U.S. service members after he sent an encrypted message to Order of the Nine Angels — a neo-Nazi Satanist group — that contained sensitive information about his unit’s size, weaponry, anticipated travel routes and defensive capabilities.

Melzer later confessed to plotting an attack against his unit with the goal of killing “as many of his fellow service members as possible,” according to his indictment.

At Melzer’s sentencing, Woods, a Barack Obama appointee in the Southern District of New York, called Melzer’s crimes “repugnant” and gave him the maximum possible sentence.

“He betrayed the United States of America,” Woods said. “He betrayed the United States military. He targeted for murder his fellow soldiers. He worked to aid jihadist terrorists. All so he could achieve his nihilist goal of undermining Judeo-Christian values and rupturing civilized society.”

It was because of those comments that Melzer sought a resentencing. He claimed that judge’s statements “would permit a reasonable observer to conclude that the district court’s sentence in this case was affected by the defendant’s hostility toward ‘Judeo and Christian values’ — values that, in the court’s view, are good for civilization.”

But the U.S. circuit court panel was unpersuaded.

“The district court’s ‘good for civilization’ reference was made in the context of describing Melzer’s and the O9A’s (Order of the Nine Angels’) views of those values to explain why, according to them, those values had to be defeated through violent conduct if their goal of chaos was to be achieved,” the panel wrote Tuesday. “Thus, that passing reference in no way indicated the district court’s own personal value judgments in imposing its sentence.”

The ruling was penned by U.S. Circuit Judges Joseph Bianco and William Nardini, both Donald Trump appointees, as well as U.S. Circuit Judge Susan Carney, a Barack Obama appointee.

Melzer’s attorneys didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York declined to comment.

Prosecutors called Melzer’s plot “one of the most stunning betrayals from within the ranks of the U.S. military ever to be prosecuted in federal court” in court documents. They also condemned Melzer’s conduct as “treasonous” and “murderous.”

“Steeped in racist, jihadist, and nihilist ideologies, his broader goal was to start a war, in which many more Americans and others would die,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing brief. “In seeking to have his fellow soldiers maimed and murdered, the defendant turned his back on his country and his unit while aligning himself with and empowering our nation’s sworn enemies.”

Melzer’s defense attorneys described the Louisville, Kentucky, native as a “lonely and alienated” 21-year-old when he hatched the violent plot in 2020. They acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 on Italy, where Melzer was stationed at the time of his radicalization.

“The then-emergent COVID-19 pandemic had struck Italy with great force and the entire country, Ethan’s unit included, was subject to a draconian lockdown. He was confined to his barracks, drinking heavily, and spending far too much time online,” his attorneys wrote. “From this toxic stew emerged a toxic idea to attack a U.S. military interest in service of O9A’s reprehensible agenda.”

Melzer evaded a potential sentence of life in prison when he pleaded guilty to three of the eight counts initially brought by federal prosecutors.

Follow @Uebey Follow @uebey.bsky.social