Neo-Nazi leader gets five years for explosive materials

TAMPA (FOX 13) - Before sentencing self-proclaimed neo-Nazi Brandon Russell, a federal judge questioned why anyone would have a framed picture of Timothy McVeigh in their bedroom.  But what troubled Judge Susan Bucklew even more was all the bomb-making material he had stored in his garage

"It was your intent to make a bomb," she observed.

Russell's mother and grandmother asked the judge for mercy and to spare him from a long prison sentence.  But federal prosecutors wanted the complete opposite, calling this case domestic terrorism.

Prosecutors reminded the judge that Russell was even the leader of a neo-Nazi group called "Atomwaffen," which means atomic bomb in German, and was recruiting members all over the country.

Russell's twisted plot came to light in the most bizarre way -- after his roommate Devon Arthurs was arrested for killing their two other roommates.

Arthurs led police to the bodies, and to Russell's bombs.  Arthurs says all of the roommates, Jeremy Himmelman, Andrew Oneshuk, Brandon Russell, and even Arthurs himself, were neo-Nazi believers.

But at some point, Arthurs converted to the Islamic faith and turned on his roommates -- especially, he says, because they disrespected his new beliefs.

Back in federal court, Brandon Russell apologized for his actions: "I take responsibility for what I've done.”

And with that, he was sentenced to five years in prison.

His attorney, Ian Goldstein, says he doesn’t expect his client will make any news headlines ever again.

"Once he gets the mental health help he needs, he won't be as easily led. I don't think you’re ever going to see me again I don't think you’re even going to hear from him again," offered Goldstein.