A self-proclaimed white supremacist was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison on Wednesday for making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue, The Associated Press reported.
Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, West Virginia, was sentenced in federal court in northern West Virginia for his September guilty plea to obstruction of the due administration of justice, according to the report.
Lloyd, who was arrested in August, admitted that the actual or perceived Jewish faith of the government witnesses and victims in the trial of Robert Bowers prompted him to target the jury and witnesses.
The US Justice Department described Lloyd as a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy movement. Prosecutors said Lloyd sent threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites during Bowers’ trial.
Lloyd’s arrest in August came a week after Bowers, who killed 11 congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue in October of 2018, was formally sentenced to death.
Bowers, 50, was convicted in June on 63 counts in connection with the October 27, 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue.
Later, a federal jury announced that he is eligible to receive the death penalty. He was found to have had a history of antisemitic comments on social media.