{"id":347576,"date":"2026-06-23T21:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347576\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T21:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T21:34:13","slug":"prairieland-shooting-defendants-families-promise-to-appeal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/347576\/","title":{"rendered":"Prairieland shooting defendants\u2019 families promise to appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prairieland Detention Center domestic terrorism case will be appealed, promised families and friends of eight defendants who were sentenced<\/a> Tuesday morning. They also warned that a dangerous precedent has been set.<\/p>\n

The eight defendants, described by federal prosecutors as antifa operatives, were convicted after three weeks of trial<\/a> and less than two days of jury deliberation in March.<\/p>\n

On July 4, 2025, those convicted were part of what defense attorneys called a noise protest outside the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Johnson County. During the protest, Alvarado police Lt. Thomas Gross was shot in the shoulder.<\/p>\n

Those sentenced Tuesday included Benjamin Hanil Song, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada. Autumn Hill, also known as Cameron Arnold, and Maegan Morris, also known as Bradford Morris, were also sentenced. In total, the sentenced received 450 years in prison.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese sentences justly punish the vicious, armed attack that these Antifa cell members planned and executed against law enforcement and detention center officers on the night of July 4th last year,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould in a statement after the fact.<\/p>\n

Morris\u2019 attorneys said in a statement that an appeal will be filed promptly.<\/p>\n

\"Friends Friends and family members hold signs for each defendant in the Prairieland Detention Center trial. On June 23, 2026, eight defendants were given the maximum sentence in the case. The only exception was Ines Soto, whose sentencing will be on July 1. Rachel Royster rroyster@star-telegram.com <\/p>\n

Directly after the maximum prison sentences<\/a> were handed out by two federal court judges \u2014 including a 100-year sentence to Song \u2014 loved ones gathered outside the U.S. District Court in Fort Worth.<\/p>\n

They said a dangerous precedent has been set that peaceful protesters can receive what amount to life sentences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t think of the gravity of what precedent this has set, considering that there are now antifa charges against protesters in Minneapolis,\u201d said Tamera Hutcherson, who was part of Batten\u2019s legal team. \u201cI want that to sink in, that it\u2019s not just here in the North Texas area. This is also now in other parts of our country, and it concerns me what this means for our free speech, as well as our right to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lydia Koza, wife of Hill, said she is livid at the distortion of due process used to sentence Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cAutumn and I got married in September of 2024,\u201d Koza said. \u201cWe have at this point spent over half of our married life separated by bars and bricks, and now they want to take the rest of this amazing woman\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before being cut off by a bystander who said \u201cdon\u2019t shoot cops,\u201d Koza said the case is based on a conspiracy theory meant to prop up President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201ccampaign of state terror against Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

Koza said the prosecution lied, concealed evidence and cheated the defendants\u2019 constitutional rights to sell a manufactured narrative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no justice in this,\u201d Koza said.<\/p>\n

Law and order did not take place Tuesday, Batten\u2019s sister Aubrey Lowrey said.<\/p>\n

She said the case will disintegrate when they get the case out of Texas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrairieland was, without a question, a peaceful noise demonstration before Lieutenant Thomas Gross showed up and started shooting at demonstrators,\u201d Lowrey said.<\/p>\n

In her final statement of the press conference, Lowrey thanked Song for being \u201cour good guy with a gun that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Song was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of Gross. Prosecutors argued that Song planned an ambush with the intent to kills officers, while the defense argued that Song fired into the ground after seeing Gross point his gun at a protester and that the shot that hit the officer might have been a ricochet.<\/p>\n

Song\u2019s mother, Hope Song, spoke next and read the statement her son gave in court before being sentenced.<\/p>\n

While reading the statement in court, Benjamin Song was interrupted multiple times by Judge Mark Pittman, who told him it wasn\u2019t the time for a political statement and he obviously hasn\u2019t accepted responsibility for his actions.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s accepted full responsibility for what actually happened,\u201d Hope Song said. \u201cBut he will never expect or accept responsibility for a lie, a government lie made to prosecute innocent people in order to get political persecutions, which they are now using as a blueprint to prosecute innocent people all over the country as domestic terrorists, which they are not.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 3:50 PM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Rachel Royster<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Rachel Royster is a news and government reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, specifically focused on Tarrant County. She joined the newsroom after interning at the Austin American-Statesman, the Waco Tribune-Herald and Capital Community News in DC. A Houston native and Baylor grad, Rachel enjoys traveling, reading and being outside. She welcomes any and all news tips to her email.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Prairieland Detention Center domestic terrorism case will be appealed, promised families and friends of eight defendants who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-347576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}