By KEILE CAMPBELL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kcampbell@tribunemedia.net

A BAHAMIAN-born neo-Nazi has been sentenced to 20 years in a US federal prison for conspiring to attack power substations in the Baltimore area.

Brandon Clint Russell, 30, appeared before a federal judge in Baltimore yesterday, where he was handed the maximum sentence under a conviction for conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The court also ordered a lifetime of supervised release, including electronic monitoring.

Russell, a dual citizen of The Bahamas and the US, was found guilty earlier this year after prosecutors presented evidence he coordinated with his girlfriend, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, to plan a series of sniper attacks to target the city’s energy grid.

US District Judge James Bredar said Russell was the intellectual driver behind the plot, which aimed to cause mass disruption to a majority-black city. According to prosecutors, the pair intended to execute the plan during winter to maximise its impact.

“The law does not permit that,” Judge Bredar said. “We do not change course in this country via violent overthrow.”

He said that in the aftermath of the attacks, the couple planned to “create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do”.

Ms Clendaniel, who previously pleaded guilty, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Investigators said the two first met while incarcerated in separate facilities and later reconnected online, where they discussed their plans using encrypted communication platforms.

According to court filings, Ms Clendaniel had expressed urgency in carrying out the plot due to her declining health and reportedly told a government informant that the plan would “permanently completely lay this city to waste”.

Russell did not speak during sentencing. He appeared in court in prison attire and displayed no visible emotion.

His attorney, Ian Goldstein, argued his client had no direct plans to travel to Maryland and said, “For Mr Russell, everything was talk.”

He also submitted a letter from Russell’s mother, who noted his struggles after relocating to The Bahamas and described him as a young man facing unresolved personal challenges. He said his mother believes Russell has been trying to fill the void left by a largely absent father.

In 2017, Russell was arrested in Tampa, Florida, after law enforcement discovered explosives and white supremacist materials in an apartment he shared with three other men, two of whom were found dead.

He later pleaded guilty to explosives charges and served five years in federal prison. He was released in 2021 and remained under supervised release at the time of the latest offence.

The Tribune understands Russell has family members living in Grand Bahama and previously attended St Andrew’s School in eastern New Providence.

Several years ago, Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for “atomic weapon”.

This wasn’t his first run-in with law enforcement. In 2017, police responded to a 2017 double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found Russell outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said. During a search of the house, police found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosives.