Snohomish County man who espoused neo-Nazi views sentenced to prison
A 29-year-old Snohomish County man and Army combat veteran who prosecutors say offered tactical training to neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups has been sentenced to two years in prison on federal gun charges.
Kyle Christopher Benton pleaded guilty in March in U.S. District Court in Seattle to charges of possession of a machine gun and possession of an unregistered short-barrel rifle. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Tana Lin sentenced him to two years in prison and three years of supervised release.
According to court documents, Benton came to the attention of FBI domestic terrorism investigators in 2019 when he was discharged from the Army after threatening to kill his wife. During that investigation, agents determined that he operated multiple social media accounts where he posted violent extremist content, neo-Nazi propaganda, and antisemitic materials.”
Prosecutors, in court filings, said Benton — who moved between residences in Snohomish County and Astoria, Ore. — espoused the violent creation of a “white ethno-state in the Pacific Northwest” and was affiliated with a group calling itself the “Order of Nine Angles,” described as an occult-based group founded in the 1960s in Great Britain that combines Satanism, neo-Nazi ideology and extremist violence.
In a letter to Lin dated June 23, Benton disavowed his racist beliefs and pleaded for compassion and mercy from the court, citing a childhood rife with domestic violence and physical and sexual abuse. According to his letter, Benton joined the Army when he was 20, was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division, 32nd Infantry Regiment, and served overseas as a combat infantryman in Afghanistan and Africa.
The machine-gun charge carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 15 years, according to federal sentencing guidelines. The unregistered firearm charge is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Benton said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder from those and other harrowing experiences, which “led me down a path of Far-Right Extremist ideals which I disavow completely,” he wrote. “I am disgusted with myself for those views.”
“I have made efforts to turn away from my racist and hateful past by making strong relationships with people of color, LGBT and other groups of people that I previously had so much misguided hate and vitriol for,” Benton wrote the judge.
In a sentencing recommendation, federal public defender Dawn Farina wrote that Benton “has made tremendous progress in growing as a kind and accepting human being, despite the odds against him.” She asked that the court limit his incarceration to the 10 months he has been in custody since his arrest in September.
Benton, who is the father of two children, ages 2 and 4, said his time at the federal detention center has made his recovery difficult “because the people I am in contact with often hold the same beliefs I have worked so hard to leave behind.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Wynne, in a sentencing memorandum, asked Lin to impose a 30-month sentence, and said Benton moved to Oregon after his discharge from the Army where he “engaged for years with other like-minded individuals in support of neo-Nazism and accelerationism, a white supremacist belief in violent action to precipitate governmental and societal collapse with an attendant race war.”
During those years, Benton attended “hate rallies” in Oregon, Washington and Idaho and “drawing upon his military training and veteran status … led workshops about firearms for various white supremacist groups,” according to the memo.
Following the May 14, 2022, mass shooting at a Tops Friendly market in Buffalo, N.Y., where 11 of the 13 people shot were Black and 10 people died, Benton wrote in a private social media message: “Another glorious entry into the annals of Aryan Terror! Hail the bloodshed! Hail Hatred! Hail the Everlasting Spirit of Adolf Hitler!”
Court documents include photos of Benton with swastikas painted on his chest, and the judge was provided with video clips of him firing a fully automatic assault rifle. FBI agents, armed with a search warrant, raided his home in Snohomish County and seized that weapon and others, including rifles with barrels shorter than 16 inches which were not registered with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.
“While Benton was in possession of these weapons, he was actively engaged with groups encouraging racially or ethnically motivated violence and white supremacy,” the prosecutor wrote. “His acts of taking on roles putting on firearms workshops and tactical trainings is particularly concerning because his doing so means he held some stature and possessed credibility within the groups.”
“This stature could result in others emulating him and his actions or following his directions, the memo said.