Los Angeles Army veteran sentenced to 25 years for plot to bomb 2019 rally

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An Army veteran convicted of planning to bomb a 2019 Los Angeles-area rally was sentenced Monday to 25 years in prison, the Justice Department said.

Mark Steven Domingo, 28, of Los Angeles, was found guilty on Aug. 11 of one count of providing material support to terrorists and one count of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction following a five-day trial. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced Domingo to 15 years on the first count and 25 years on the second and ordered both be served concurrently. 

Federal prosecutors asked for a sentence of life in prison. The judge also ordered Domingo be placed on supervised release for 20 years upon release. He's been in federal custody since April 2019. 

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Mark Steven Domingo, 28, an Army veteran, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for plotting to attack a 2019 Southern California rally.  (Justice Department )

"This defendant planned a mass-casualty terrorist attack and repeatedly admitted at trial that he had a desire to kill as many people as possible," Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy Wilkison said in a DOJ news release. "Had this bombing been successful, many innocent people would have been murdered, yet this defendant has shown no remorse for his conduct, nor has he renounced the extremist ideology that motivated his horrific plot."

Fox News has reached out to Wilkison's office. 

Domingo came on the radar of federal authorities after he made several posts in an online forum stating his desire to seek violent revenge for attacks against Muslims in New Zealand mosques that left 51 people dead. He was also willing to become a martyr, prosecutors said. He considered targeting Jewish people, churches and police officers before settling on bombing an April 2019 rally in Long Beach.

As part of his plot, Domingo, a former infantryman in the Army, asked a confidential FBI informant to invite a bomb-maker into the scheme, authorities said. The bomb maker was an undercover law enforcement officer. 

Homeland Security police cars are shown parked outside the Long Beach, Calif., Federal Courthouse in Long Beach, Calif. (AP)

At one point, Domingo purchased several hundred 3.5-inch nails to be used as shrapnel for the bombs. He allegedly chose nails because they could penetrate vital organs. During his plan, he allegedly scouted the location of the Long Beach rally and discussed how to find the most crowded areas to place the bombs, authorities said. 

He was arrested after receiving what he believed were two live bombs. He was holding one of them when he was taken into custody, the Justice Department said. 

Leading up to the planned attack, Domingo called for an event similar to the October 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas in which at least 58 people were killed and hundreds were injured when a gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire from a room at the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino targeting concertgoers below at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival.

In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors said Domingo admitted the confidential informant stopped him from committing at least one murder in April 2019 by encouraging him to be patient. 

Mark Steven Domingo (Justice Department )

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Military records show Domingo served about 16 months in the Army, including a four-month stint in Afghanistan in fall 2012, according to The Associated Press. A U.S. official told the AP in 2019 that Domingo was demoted to private, the lowest grade, and discharged before completing his enlistment contract for committing an unspecified serious offense.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.