Far-left agitators, including journalist, sentenced to federal prison, ordered to pay huge fines for fire bombing police vehicles in 2020

A group of far-left agitators have been sentenced after pleading guilty to a series of violent attacks targeting police vehicles and buildings in and around Little Rock, Arkansas in 2020. Only one pleaded guilty to arson, while the others admitted to possession of, or conspiracy to possess, an unregistered destructive device, a Molotov cocktail.

Four of the five defendants, 33-year-old Mujera Benjamin Lung'aho, 30-year-old Emily Nowlin, 27-year-old Aline Espinosa-Villegas, and 25-year-old Renea Goddard, were each given federal prison terms varying between 17 months and 66 months, and ordered to pay huge fines. A fifth, 34-year-old Brittany Dawn Jeffrey, was informed of her fate in 2022, and received the shortest sentence and lowest fine, at 17 months and $529.30, respectively.

According to the Department of Justice, Lung'aho received the longest jail sentence and highest fine, at 66 months and $86,099.37, respectively. Nowlin and Goddard were each sentenced to 18 months in prison, and ordered to pay $35,956.31. Espinosa-Villegas received the same prison term, but their restitution was $34,356.31.
 

"There is no justification for violent acts targeting our law enforcement community," said United States Attorney Jonathan D. Ross. "The use of Molotov cocktails to destroy law enforcement property is not a form of legitimate protest; rather, it is a troubling escalation of gratuitous violence that seeks to stoke embers of anarchy in our community, and it will not be tolerated in the Eastern District of Arkansas."

"The Constitution protects our rights to peacefully assemble," he added, "but make no mistake, when you use violence to advance your agenda, the Department of Justice will make every effort to put you in prison.  Anyone engaging in such criminal activity will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

On August 25, 2020, a large crowd of far-left demonstrators held a violent protest at the Little Rock Police Department's 12th Street Substation, where they punctured the tires of police vehicles and threw Molotov cocktails.

Three days later, an Arkansas State Police vehicle was vandalized and burned while parked in a lot at police headquarters in the capitol. Another vehicle was set on fire, and several others were vandalized, again with Molotov cocktails.

Federal investigators concluded that the defendants "conspired together, aided and abetted one another" and used encrypted applications to communicate with each other "in an attempt to thwart law enforcement detection of the group['s] criminal activities."

Renea Goddard is a left-wing journalist who was previously arrested and charged with obstructing governmental operations while violating curfew at a BLM protest in June 2020. Jeffrey has a criminal past and allowed comrades to assemble incendiary devices at her home.