The 20-year-old who firebombed an Ohio church in 2023 said he did it for the children. Aimenn D. Penny showed no remorse even as he faced an 18-year conviction.
Penny attacked the Community Church of Chesterland, which was planning to hold two drag shows. He admitted to throwing two Molotov cocktails into the church building on March 25, 2023, at 1 a.m. The FBI arrested Penny six days later, on March 31, 2023.
The attack aimed to scare the church into canceling the program. The attack, however, caused no substantial damage to the building. Penny faced U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan.
The judge sentenced him to 18 years in federal prison. The sentence didn’t move Penny. To the judge’s shock, he defended his actions and embraced his punishment. He told the court that his action was meant to “protect children.”
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He condemned the growing popularity of the LGBTQ+ community and what he believed was the negative influence their actions are having on little kids.
He also spoke against the idea of men dressing as women and vice versa, especially in the faces of children. “I didn’t hurt anyone,” Penny declared. But the judge disagreed.
In addition to his prison sentence, she ordered him to pay $10,507 to the church to cover the cost of his attack. She also ordered him to undergo mental health treatment and go through three years of supervised probation upon release.
Penny had appeared before the court in October 2023. During the trial, UU.S.attorney Rebecca Lutzko huggested a prison time of 20 years. After his trial, the court found him guilty of arson and obstruction.
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Penny belongs to the White Lives Matter and the Blood Tribe, two controversial and in the opinion of some, extremist groups. Penny had protested a drag queen event in Wadsworth along with a group just two weeks before the attack.
Although he claimed that he intended to “protect children from transgender persons,” Lutzko declared that his intentions were far from noble. Lutzko said that Penny’s purpose “was intimidation of those who disagree with him.”
“He was not freeing any children held at the church that night,” she countered. Judge Brennan was also not nice to Penny, especially after he claimed that he didn’t hurt anyone. She reminded him that a preschool close to the church shut down after the attack.
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“Had you set fire to the Church, who would have responded? First responders,” Brennan queried. “You would have put them at risk,” she added, while also reminding him that his actions left church members traumatized.
Reports show that Penny called for more attacks even while in jail. In court, he showed no sign of remorse and stated that his only regret was that “the church didn’t burn down to the ground.”
Jess Peacock, pastor of the church, said the church went ahead with the two events. Peacock also left a message to Penny. “Mr. Penny you failed,” he declared. “Yes, you failed…because hate will always fail.”
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