US court sentences white supremacist who threatened Pittsburgh jurors, witnesses to 6 years
The Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Photo by Benyamin Cohen
(JTA) — A federal court sentenced a West Virginia man to more than six years in prison for threatening jurors and witnesses in the trial of a man who massacred 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018.
Hardy Lloyd, 45, was arrested in West Virginia in July and pleaded guilty in September, acknowledging that the Jewishness of the victims of the 2018 shooting and the witnesses in the trial of the man who killed them was a factor prompting him to make the threats.
A court in Wheeling, West Virginia handed down the sentence on Dec. 20, the Associated Press reported.
Lloyd is a white supremacist and a self-proclaimed “reverend.” Federal agents who charged him in July said he “made threatening social media posts, website comments, and emails towards the jury and witnesses during the trial.”
A jury sentenced the gunman to death in August. The attack on the Tree of Life synagogue is the worst on Jews in U.S. history.
Lloyd also sent messages to survivors of the 2018 attack, the victims’ families and employees of the local Jewish federation and Secure Community Network, a nonprofit that coordinates security for Jewish institutions.
He lived commuting distance from Pittsburgh and left stickers in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood where the 2018 attack on the synagogue occurred, with directions to his website.
Lloyd has long been known to law enforcement for harassing the Jewish community and has been sentenced to prison three time. He was most recently released in 2020.
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
