NY Jewish man arrested in 2022 synagogue shooting plot sentenced to 2.5 years

Matthew Mahrer apologizes to family as he heads to prison for case that divided Jewish community members

Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.

Police stationed outside a Manhattan synagogue, November 4, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)
Police stationed outside a Manhattan synagogue, November 4, 2022. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

NEW YORK — A Jewish man arrested in a 2022 synagogue shooting plot was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison in a New York court on Wednesday.

Matthew Mahrer, 24, helped a white supremacist who said he planned to “shoot up a synagogue” procure a firearm, then stashed the weapon in his family home in Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Mahrer and his accomplice, Christopher Brown, were arrested after Brown’s threatening social media posts were flagged for law enforcement by a Jewish security group, the Community Security Initiative. After the arrests, the case drew widespread attention from media and local officials, and stoked fear in the Jewish community.

The case also divided Jewish community members. Mahrer’s family and supporters said Mahrer was not aware of Brown’s plot, is autistic and suffering from PTSD, and has effectively rehabilitated in the two years since his arrest. They urged the judge in the case to grant Mahrer an alternative sentence to prison.

Mahrer’s opponents called for a stiff prison sentence to reflect the severity of the weapons charge and synagogue threat, and to act as a deterrent to other would-be attackers.

At the sentencing in the New York Supreme Court on Wednesday, both Mahrer’s supporters and opponents filled the courtroom.

Mahrer’s lawyer, Gilbert Bayonne, asked the judge for an alternative sentence, citing Mahrer’s mental health issues, rehabilitation in the past two years, his lack of awareness about Brown’s plot, Mahrer’s status as a first-time offender, and his support from Jewish community members.

“He is committed to succeeding and forging a path toward redemption,” Bayonne said.

The judge, Gregory Carro, said he had “no discretion” regarding an alternative sentence, due to sentencing guidelines. Mahrer pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges late last year. As part of the plea bargain, Mahrer agreed to serve 2.5 years in prison and two years of post-release supervision. The minimum sentence for the charges was 3.5 years.

In a statement to the court, Mahrer expressed remorse and apologized to his family.

“I could not be more grateful that no one was hurt and I’m sorry to everyone, especially my family,” he said.

“I’ve given it my all and I still feel ashamed because I feel like I’ve disappointed them,” he said. “I just want to do every little thing I can to make the world a better place.”

“I’m never going to stop trying to be a better person,” he said. Mahrer blew a kiss to his supporters at the back of the courtroom as he was led out with his hands cuffed behind his back.

A firearm recovered from Matthew Mahrer’s Upper West Side apartment, November 18, 2022. Mahrer, 24, pleaded guilty to felony weapons charges. (US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York via JTA)

His supporters included his parents, Michael and Susan Mahrer, social workers, and Sheldon Fine, the vice chair of the West Side Council of Orthodox Jewish Organizations. Some of his supporters wept after the sentence was announced.

Michael Mahrer said the sentence was “not really a service of justice so much as a service of politics.” The family has said the Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, has been put under pressure in the case, due to spiking antisemitism in New York.

“Sending him to jail for two-and-a-half years is illogical and serves nobody,” Michael Mahrer said. “Matthew is a good person. Dozens of people went to bat for him.”

“This decision by the court today puts him at great risk all over again. He’s been failed by the system throughout his life,” he said. “He’s the strongest person I know and I have nothing but mountains of pride for him because of all the progress he’s made and the way he’s gotten himself through this as an autistic young person with all the trauma in his past.”

Mahrer’s opponents also expressed disappointment with the sentencing, pointing out that he had received a far lighter sentence than Brown, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison last year. A third defendant, Jamil Hakim, who supplied Mahrer and Brown with the firearm, was sentenced to 27 months in prison last year.

“Mahrer got only 25 percent of Brown’s sentence and I think he bears more than 25% of the responsibility,” said Glenn Richter, a member of a synagogue near the Mahrers’ apartment who has been following the case and attending the hearings. “It’s a tragedy, but the fact of the matter is, you do the crime, you do the time.”

“I hope at the very end of this, with all the verbiage that was thrown at the judge, that he will come out eventually and become a better person and hopefully a credit to society,” Richter said.

David Pollock, founder of the Community Security Initiative, the group that first picked up Brown’s threats, said Mahrer, in his statement to the court, had apologized to his family, but had not addressed “the fear that he effectively triggered in the Jewish community.”

“This was part of a plot to cause serious injury, if not death,” Pollack said.

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