Officials stated that Jordan Patrick Leahy, 29, was sentenced this week in federal court in Florida to two years in prison for attacking a Black man traveling down a roadway with his family in Seminole, Florida.
Leahy was convicted of willfully intimidating and interfering with J.T., and attempting to injure, intimidate and interfere with J.T. through the use of a dangerous weapon (Leahy’s vehicle), because of J.T.’s race and color, and because J.T. was traveling on a public roadway in Seminole, Florida.
Specifically, the government introduced evidence at trial that, when Leahy, while driving, came upon J.T. driving on a public road, Leahy shouted racial slurs at J.T. and attempted to force J.T.’s car off the road.
J.T.’s girlfriend and four-year-old daughter were in the car at the time.
According to court documents, Leahy, who is white, pursued the Black man and his family for roughly a mile while driving drunk on Aug. 8, 2021, and shouting racist slurs. The man, his girlfriend and his preschool-aged daughter were driving home from a dinner in Seminole, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The Tampa Bay Times stated Leahy sideswiped the family’s vehicle, then gave a Nazi salute and gestured with his hands to pretend he was shooting into the vehicle, deputies said. Leahy then got out of his vehicle at the intersection of Bryan Dairy and Starkey roads and punched the man.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors noted that Leahy previously served time in prison for stalking his ex-girlfriend, and they said he had a fascination with mass shootings.
When Leahy was arrested, he told deputies he wanted to carry out a mass shooting to kill 70 to 80 people and that “society needs to be concerned how easily he can conduct a mass shooting,” according to his arrest report.
When officers from the Pinellas County Sherriff’s Office arrived on the scene, Leahy made numerous statements evidencing his bias motive, including telling the officers that Black people need to be kept “in their areas.”
“This federal court has sentenced Jordan Leahy to prison for his decision to weaponize his vehicle in a racist attack on J.T.’s family,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “The department will continue to aggressively prosecute those who seek to threaten and intimidate our community members because of their race. All persons should be free to travel on the public roadways without fear of being harmed because of who they are.”
“Today’s sentence sends a clear message that racially-motivated criminal behavior is especially repugnant and unacceptable,” said U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg of the Middle District of Florida.
“We will not allow hate-motivated crimes to infiltrate our communities and threaten our citizens,” said Special Agent in Charge David Walker for the FBI Tampa Field Division.
The FBI Tampa Field Office, the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Highway Patrol investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carlton Gammons for the Middle District of Florida and Trial Attorneys David Reese and Laura-Kate Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division are prosecuting the case.