A Virginia man has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in the February 2024 shooting of two Latino men at a gas station in Spotsylvania County, prosecutors announced Wednesday.
Douglas Wayne Cornett, of Ruther Glen, just north of Richmond, shot the two victims after learning that one of them had recently arrived in the United States.
Investigators say the 58-year-old man followed a box truck driven by an adult Latino male, identified in court papers only as O.G., into a Sheetz gas station on the evening of Feb. 28, 2024.
He then asked a victim with the initials J.M. — described as an adult Latino male and a friend of O.G. — how long his friend had been in the country.
After learning O.G. had arrived in the U.S. within the last two years, Cornett pulled a handgun and shot at the men, striking O.G. three times and J.M. once.
He then left the gas station, returned home and told two people about what had happened, according to court documents cited by local ABC affiliate WRIC.
After Cornett was arrested the following day, he reportedly told a detective he had acted out of “anger at illegal immigration.”
He also said he “fantasized” about flying to the U.S. border in a helicopter and “firing on undocumented migrants traveling into the United States in order ‘to deter’ other undocumented migrants from attempting to cross the border.”
On Wednesday, Cornett pleaded guilty to two counts of federal hate crimes involving attempts to kill, and one count of discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence.
He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Nov. 13 and faces a mandatory 10-year sentence on the firearms violation and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the hate crimes.
