Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. (Screen capture: Google Street View)
MIAMI — A Florida man will be hospitalized for psychiatric treatment and likely serve 25 years in prison for plotting to bomb a synagogue and Jewish school center during Passover last year.
A Miami federal judge imposed that sentence Tuesday on James Gonzalo Medina, a 41-year-old who pleaded guilty to a religious hate crime and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. The maximum sentence is life in prison.
Authorities said Medina planned to attack the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center. Medina was arrested on April 29, 2016, after approaching the center with a fake bomb provided by an undercover FBI informant.
FBI recordings showed Medina supported the Islamic State extremist group and claimed an obligation to attack Jews in the US. His lawyers say Medina suffers from significant mental health problems.
James Gonzalo Medina, a 40-year-old convert to Islam from Hollywood, Florida, was arrested by the FBI while carrying what he thought was a bomb to the Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center in a suburb of Miami (YouTube screen cap)
Court documents also indicate that Medina suffers from bipolar disorder.
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According to prosecutors, Medina initially planned to attack the site’s 800-member Conservative synagogue and its school with assault rifles on Yom Kippur and was hoping to inspire other Muslims to commit terrorist attacks.
He reportedly told an undercover FBI informant that he was prepared to kill innocent women and children.
Medina also allegedly made several videos before the planned attack on the synagogue, including one in which he said goodbye to his family, the Sun-Sentinel reported at the time of the attack.
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