Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette The trial for Nathan Weeden on charges of conspiracy against rights and damage to religious property for his vandalism of Temple Jacob in Hancock took place in the U.S. District Courthouse in Marquette this week. A guilty verdict was handed down Thursday.

MARQUETTE — After a little more than two hours of deliberation, a federal jury found a former Michigan Technological University student guilty on two counts related to anti-Semitic vandalism at Temple Jacob in Hancock.

Nathan Weeden, 23, sprayed swastikas and other anti-Semitic symbols on the synagogue in September 2019 as part of a coordinated action by The Base, a decentralized white supremacist group to which Weeden belonged.

The group sought to deface Jewish- or minority-owned businesses and places of worship in what they called “Operation Kristallnacht,” after a Nazi campaign of murders and damage committed against Jewish people in November 1938.

“What happened in this case was not a mere property crime — spraypainting somebody else’s property,” U.S. Attorney Mark Totten of the Western District of Michigan said in an interview Thursday afternoon. “Of course the purpose was to send a message to this particular community, Jews in the Houghton/Hancock area and beyond, that they are not welcome. And today we secured a real win by holding Mr. Weeden accountable, and that’s what we’re going to do every time this kind of thing happens. We’re not going to tolerate these hateful acts that violate criminal law.”

After closing arguments and jury instructions, the jury began deliberating at 10:25 a.m. At 12:50 p.m., Judge Robert Jonker announced they had reached a verdict.

Weeden was charged with conspiracy against rights and damage to religious property. He could face up to 10 years in prison. A sentencing date had not been set Thursday.

“While we’re disappointed, we accept the jury’s verdict, and we’ll have to determine in the days ahead what options we have,” said Weeden’s attorney, Heath Lynch.

Totten said he was “thrilled with the outcome.”

“This case sends a really important message across the Upper Peninsula, across Michigan, beyond, that hate is not going to be tolerated and that we will hold accountable those who perpetrate hateful, criminal acts.”

U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler prosecuted the case alongside an attorney from the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

“This defendant shamelessly desecrated Temple Jacob when he emblazoned swastikas — a symbol of extermination — on their Temple walls,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a release. “Such conduct is unacceptable and criminal under any circumstances but doing so in furtherance of self-described ‘Operational Kristallnacht’ conspiracy is beyond disgraceful. Anti-semitism has no place in our society, and the Justice Department will aggressively prosecute white supremacists who seek to threaten and intimidate others from exercising their federally and constitutionally protected rights.”

Weeden, who had been out on bond, was remanded to the custody of law enforcement. In discussion shortly after the verdict, Kessler said Weeden was a flight risk. With no chance of acquittal to keep Weeden in check, he might take out his frustration at others if released, Kessler said.

“People like him, who are part of a hate movement, tend to want to take it out on society,” he said.

Kessler said the government may also pursue additional firearms charges against Weeden. Video and other evidence, which Kessler said included some from the period after the Temple Jacob incident, appeared to show that Weeden had illegally manufactured a fully automatic weapon.

In an interview Thursday afternoon, Totten declined to elaborate on the charges beyond what had been said in court.

Although Weeden’s existing guns had been confiscated after his arrest, Kessler said he had already demonstrated awareness of how to obtain more. He recalled testimony from former Base member Yousef Barasneh that Weeden had advised him to purchase an AR-15 at a gun show in order to sidestep background checks.

“The fact that he is a convicted felon is no obstacle to him obtaining a weapon,” Kessler said.

Lynch disputed that Weeden was a flight risk to leave the state. He now has a job at an engineering firm and is living with his mother in his hometown of Saline, Michigan. Weeden also has a wife, a graduate student at Tech.

Lynch said in the four years between the Temple Jacob incident and Weeden’s indictment, Weeden had been living in a “peaceful, law-abiding way.” He was also on a “faith journey” that had taken him beyond some of his past immaturity, Lynch said.

“Time has shown, experience has shown, that he never threatened anybody,” he said. “…We hope, and we trust, that whatever he was posting on social media he has begun to rethink.”

Kessler disputed Weeden’s evolution. Though he did not provide specifics in court, he mentioned racist posts Weeden had made as recently as 2023 on iFunny, a humor site Weeden had credited with starting his radicalization.

Jonker agreed there was potential for harm. He cited not just the record from the case, but Weeden’s response to a prior FBI investigation into a bomb threat he had made while in high school, which included racist invective against the agents.

“There is certainly reason for genuine concern that acting out by Mr. Weeden is a genuine possibility,” he said.

Lynch said the defense plans to seek Weeden’s release and would look to prepare evidence in advance of a hearing in the upcoming weeks.

Two co-conspirators in the Base operation have already pleaded guilty. Barasneh has an upcoming sentencing for defacing the synagogue in Racine. Richard Tobin, a New Jersey resident who directed the vandalism, was sentenced to a year and a day in prison in 2021.

During the trial, prosecutors played audio of a conversation between Weeden and members of the Base when he was looking to join, and showed excerpts from online chats including Weeden, Tobin, Barasneh and other Base members in the weeks leading up to Operation Kristallnacht and in its immediate aftermath. Barasneh also testified about an in-person meeting with Weeden at firearms training conducted by members of the Base’s Midwest cell at a firing range in Wisconsin.