Teen Pleads Guilty to Vandalizing Synagogue in DC Area Town

A teenager has pleaded guilty to vandalizing a synagogue in his suburban Washington, D.C., hometown.

Sebastian Espinoza-Carranza, 18, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Montgomery County District Court in Rockville to charges of defacing religious property and malicious destruction of property, the Montgomery Community Media reported.

Espinoza-Carranza, whose sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 20, was arrested on April 14 for spray-painting anti-Semitic graffiti, including swastikas, on the walls, windows and doors of Shaare Torah Synagogue one week earlier.

BREAKING NEWS Teen pleads guilty to vandalizing synagogue in his D.C.-area town European Parliament calls for labels identifying settlement goods Airbnb, Tel Aviv to create interactive city guide He is expected to avoid jail time and instead to be required to visit the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, write an essay and help repair the synagogue.

In an email to MyMCMedia, Shaare Torah Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal said that before pleading guilty, Espinoza-Carranza met with him and other representatives of the Conservative congregation, apologizing both in person and in writing.

“I am hopeful that as Mr. Espinoza-Carranza moves through this process, including commitments made in the sentencing process as determined by the courts, we will achieve full forgiveness and reconciliation,” Blumenthal said.

At the time of his arrest, the teen told detectives that he carried out the attack on the Shaare Torah Synagogue because he disliked the Jewish people who worshipped there, the WTOP radio station reported.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

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.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO