Donavon Parish, 29, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of cyberstalking and five counts of abuse and harassment using a telecommunications device, according to officials.
Parish also admitted that he targeted his victims based on their actual and perceived religion.
According to court documents, during April and May 2022, the defendant used a voiceover internet protocol service to make a series of phone calls to synagogues and Jewish-owned businesses in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
In these calls, the defendant spoke to individuals answering the telephone calls on behalf of their respective institutions, at which time he repeatedly referenced the genocide of approximately six million Jewish people during the Holocaust, stating, among other things, “Heil Hitler,” “all Jews must die,” “we will put you in work camps,” “gas the Jews” and “Hitler should have finished the job.”
Parish is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 24 and faces a statutory maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, three years of supervised release, a $1.5 million fine and a $600 special assessment.
The FBI Philadelphia Field Office is investigating the case.
Trial Attorney Justin Sher of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Jeanette Kang for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania are prosecuting the case.