ANDY NGO REPORTS: So Cal Antifa member sentenced to five years in prison for assaulting woman and child at San Diego riot

A violent So Cal Antifa member was sentenced to five years in state prison by a San Diego County court after admitting to assaulting a woman and boy during an Antifa riot at Pacific Beach three years ago.

At the sentencing on Feb. 13, a handcuffed Jesse Merel Cannon, 33, received two years for the 2021 Antifa riot case, plus three more years for a separate violent felony assault case that was included in the plea deal. While out on bail on separate violent charges, Cannon committed new assaults at the Antifa riot on Jan. 9, 2021, leading to the sentencing enhancement.

Violent Antifa member Jesse Cannon was an amateur rapper

Jesse Merel Cannon was identified by prosecutors as the man in the grey hat

Cannon had pleaded guilty to conspiring to riot and two counts of assault against a woman and minor boy with the use of a dangerous or deadly weapon. He committed these felonies while out on bail for a previous felony assault with a deadly weapon charge, to which he also pleaded guilty. He is the eighth Antifa member of the original 11 indicted co-defendants to be convicted in San Diego.

Judge Daniel Goldstein also ordered Cannon to pay restitution to the two victims of his assaults, a then-underage male and a middle-aged woman who were on the beach boardwalk that day in support of Donald Trump at a rally. Goldstein declared that Cannon and all the other Antifa rioters who are convicted will owe restitution “jointly and severally” for the many other victims who were described in the 18-page indictment.


Jesse Cannon’s female victim was attacked to the ground during the Antifa riot

One of Jesse Cannon’s minor victims after being assaulted in the riot

Cannon is disputing the amount of restitution he owes to the victims he attacked. His motion will be addressed at a court hearing in March. 

The prosecution by the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has infuriated far-left activists since the case became public in 2021 because prosecutors used conspiracy to riot charges against Antifa members for the first time in the country. At the riot, dozens of masked Antifa members in black gathered to confront and attack supporters of Donald Trump on Pacific Beach. Videos capturing the mayhem showed Antifa members pepper spraying their targets, chasing after them as a group and beating some of them with weapons. Cannon’s sentencing wraps up a years-long case involving a violent Antifa member with close links to the public defender’s office. 

As previously reported, prosecutor Will Hopkins claimed to the court that Cannon had or has an Antifa girlfriend in the San Diego Public Defender’s office who allegedly had access to information about victims and witnesses in this high-profile case. The judge granted the prosecution’s request to seal the identity of the victims and witnesses over concerns that Cannon’s girlfriend, Leah Madbak, was leaking privileged information.


Violent Antifa member Jesse Merel Cannon and his girlfriend Leah Madbak, who works in the San Diego Public Defender’s office

In addition to Cannon, seven other Antifa co-defendants have already pleaded guilty in deals where they admitted committing violent felonies at the riot. Those convicts so far include trans activist Erich Louis Yach, 40, Bryan Rivera, 22, trans militant Samuel Howard Ogden, 26, Christian Martinez, 25, Alexander Akridge-Jacobs, 33, Faraz Martin Talab, 29, and Joseph Austin Gaskins, 23.

11 Antifa members were indicted in the violent conspiracy case

There are three remaining defendants set for jury trial on March 25: Brian Cortez Lightfoot Jr., 27, Luis Francisco Mora, 32, and Jeremy Jonathan White, 41. Their trial has been repeatedly delayed for months due to multiple motions from their attorneys that even included a failed attempt to get the case thrown out of the county.