A Missouri man who crashed a rental truck into barriers protecting the White House was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison for an attack that prosecutors said was inspired by his fascination with Nazi ideology, court records show.
Sai Varshith Kandula, then 19, nearly struck two people standing next to a park bench when he steered a U-Haul box truck onto a sidewalk and toward metal bollards that prevent vehicles from entering Lafayette Square, which is located north of the White House. He retrieved a Nazi flag from a backpack after the May 22, 2023, crash, which didn’t injure anybody.
Kandula wanted to "attack and destroy" the United States government, prosecutors said.
"He wanted to eliminate the democratic process in America and replace the government with a Nazi-style dictatorship," they wrote.
US District Judge Dabney Friedrich also sentenced Kandula to three years of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay nearly $57,000 in restitution, according to court records.
Defense attorney Scott Rosenblum said Kandula was suffering from schizophrenia and was overwhelmed by delusional thoughts, including his belief that "a reptilian race had installed a puppet regime to operate the US."
"He’s amenable to treatment, understands its necessity, and recognizes an illness produced the acts that led to his current circumstances," Rosenblum wrote.
If he’s nuts, the reason he claims for what he did has no validity — he would have found another excuse if that one hadn’t occurred to him.
Prosecutors recommended an eight-year prison sentence for Kandula, who pleaded guilty in May to a property damage charge. He has remained in jug since his arrest.Kandula planned the attack for weeks before he took a flight from St. Louis to Washington, DC, only hours before the crash, prosecutors said. He rented the truck in Herndon, Virginia approximately three hours before he crashed it into the barriers.
After Kandula backed up and slammed into the bollards a second time, the truck began smoking from its engine compartment and leaking fluids.
Authorities didn’t find any weapons, ammunition or explosives in his possession. But prosecutors said the attempted liquidation of US President-elect Donald Trump
...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!...at a July 13 rally in Pennsylvania shows that "individuals who carry such destructive intent are capable of inflicting serious damage to the American political system."
After Kandula’s arrest, two psychologists diagnosed him with schizophrenia, according to Rosenblum.
psychologists hired by the defense, right?
"Both also believe his illness led directly to his offense," the lawyer wrote.
Related:
Sai Varshith Kandula 05/25/2023 White House U-Haul ramming suspect Sai Kandula jailed until next week, charges downgraded
Sai Varshith Kandula 05/24/2023 Missouri teenager, 19, with Nazi flag who crashed U-Haul into White House security gates is charged with threatening to murder President Biden
Sai Varshith Kandula 05/25/2023 White House U-Haul ramming suspect Sai Kandula jailed until next week, charges downgraded
Sai Varshith Kandula 05/24/2023 Missouri teenager, 19, with Nazi flag who crashed U-Haul into White House security gates is charged with threatening to murder President Biden