Making it real with Antifa in Texas.
Posted by Ed Folsom, March 14, 2026
The federal criminal trial of nine members of a North Texas Antifa cell ended yesterday, March 13, 2026, with guilty verdicts against all defendants. The nine were charged in connection with activities on July 4, 2025, at an ICE detention facility in Prairieland, TX. A large group, dressed in black bloc, arrived after dark that night and began setting off fireworks outside the detention facility. Facility personnel called local police for backup, and when Alvarado, TX, police Lt. Thomas Gross responded, he was hit in the neck with a rifle shot.
This past November, seven people — Nathan Baumann, Joy Gibson, Susan Kent, Rebecca Morgan, Lynette Sharp, John Thomas and Seth Sikes — pled guilty to federal charges of providing material support to terrorists in connection with these events. They will be sentenced in June, along with the nine convicted yesterday.
The jury’s verdict for the nine who went to trial breaks down as follows:
- Benjamin Song, who shot Lt. Gross and was characterized by the government as the ringleader, was found guilty of attempted murder, discharging a firearm, rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and use and carrying of an explosive (fireworks used at the detention facility).
- Cameron Arnold a/k/a Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Savanna Batten, Bradford Morris a/k/a Meagan Morris, Elizabeth Soto and Ines Soto were convicted of rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive (the fireworks).
- Maricela Rueda, was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record (attempting to cover-up evidence), as well as rioting, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, and using and carrying an explosive.
- Daniel Sanchez Estrada was convicted of corruptly concealing a document or record (attempting to cover-up evidence).
- Hill, Evetts, Morris and Rueda were also acquitted of attempted murder and of discharging a firearm. The Government theorized that they were culpable for aiding and abetting Song’s shooting of Gross, but the jury found reasonable doubt.
The 12-day trial was the first federal trial of an Antifa cell on domestic terrorism charges. According to a story in KERA News, which bills itself as “NPR for North Texas”:
“Some of the evidence showed the defendants’ involvement with the local chapters of leftist or anarchist groups like the Socialist Rifle Association or the Emma Goldman Book Club. Prosecutors later argued these organizations were above-ground fronts for the antifa cell, and members were recruited from these groups’ gatherings.”
The Socialist Rifle Association apparently has, or at least had, a chapter here in Maine. It looks like U.S. Senate Candidate Graham Platner was once associated with it. According to the Wikipedia page for the Socialist Rifle Association, membership is predicated on agreeing to certain “points of unity” including:
“We are a multi-tendency association of social democrats, communists, and anarchists united by class, for our class.”
The Maine Wire and The Robinson Report Substack account have located and reported on Reddit posts from 2020 in which Platner associated himself with the Maine Socialist Rifle Association (SRA). Platner described himself as providing weapons training to the group, and said it was “quite active.” The Robinson Report Substack post is accompanied by a photo, reportedly taken from a Maine SRA social media account, showing an armed group with their faces blacked out, posing with a flag that combines Antifa and LGBTQIA++ symbolism.
It might be something to keep an eye on. Despite what you might have been told, Antifa is real, and it’s not a tea party.
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