Aimenn Penny at a White Lives Matter Ohio protest in Wadsworth, Ohio on March 11, 2023. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Northern District Court of Ohio)

On Monday, a judge sentenced 20-year-old Aimenn Penny to 18 years in prison after firebombing a church in Chesterland, Ohio last March.

Penny was arrested in March 2023, and he plead guilty in October to throwing two gasoline-filled explosive devices (commonly known as Molotov cocktails) at the Community Church of Chesterland in Geauga County on March 25 in protest of the LGBTQ community. The church was scheduled to host two drag shows events before Penny’s actions, which he said were to “protect children from transgender persons.”

In a manifesto he wrote in jail, Penny showed pride in his actions, and his only regret was that “the church didn’t burn to the ground.” Penny is a member of the neo-Nazi hate groups White Lives Matter Ohio and Blood Tribe.