‘I wanna blow up a synagogue’: Online posts lead to hate crime charge against Utah man

By RON KAMPEAS

(JTA) — A Utah man accused of possessing explosive devices, searching online for nearby synagogues and making online threats to kill Jews pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges including attempting to commit a hate crime.

A federal grand jury indicted Skyler AJ Rose, 22, on Wednesday, the Department of Justice said in a release. 

The FBI emblem on the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in downtown Washington, D.C. (iStock)

Rose allegedly made threats on social media, including “I wanna blow up a synagogue,” leading the FBI to join the Ogden City Police Department in a search of his home, where they allegedly discovered six pipe bombs, two rifles and ammunition.

A review of a cellphone seized from the home allegedly showed that Rose had searched online for a nearby synagogue, according to the Department of Justice.

The charges Rose faces include possession of an unregistered destructive device, threats to kill and injure people and to destroy a building, and attempting to commit a hate crime. 

At Friday’s initial hearing, the judge granted a request from Rose’s attorney, a federal public defender, that prosecutors hand over evidence against the defendant, according to court records. 

When prosecutors asked the judge to keep the defendant in jail until the trial, Rose chose not to fight this request, the court records stated. He was handed over to U.S. marshals to be kept in custody until the conclusion of the case.