JERUSALEM (VINnews) — A Moorpark resident has been sentenced to a year in jail after entering a guilty plea regarding the death of a 69-year-old Jewish rally attendee who sustained fatal cranial trauma during a 2023 clash between opposing Middle East war demonstrations in Thousand Oaks.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Professor Loay Abdel Fattah Alnaji, a 53-year-old educator at the Moorpark College, was handed a one-year incarceration term at the Ventura County Jail alongside two years of felony probation for the 2023 death of retired pro-Israel activist Paul Kessler, KTLA-TV reported on Tuesday, citing an announcement from the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
The sentencing follows Alnaji’s legal decision in May of this year to plead guilty to charges of felony involuntary manslaughter and felony battery resulting in serious bodily harm.
According to state prosecutors, Alnaji transformed a heated verbal shouting match into an active physical assault against the victim on November 5, 2023, while opposing groups gathered at the intersection of Thousand Oaks Boulevard and Westlake Boulevard.
The district attorney’s team established that Alnaji hit Kessler in the head utilizing a megaphone, a blow that forced the victim backward onto the asphalt where he struck his head on the hard pavement.
Eyewitness recordings captured from the immediate aftermath showed Kessler immobilized on the ground while multiple bystanders, including at least one individual from the pro-Palestinian Arab demonstration, rushed over to administer first aid.
Following the physical encounter, Alnaji remained at the intersection, placed a call to emergency services via 911, and provided a formal statement to arriving police detectives.
Kessler succumbed to the extensive internal injuries caused by the confrontation one day later. Law enforcement officers subsequently tracked down Alnaji several days after the incident, placing him under arrest for causing the fatality.
The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office formally noted that its prosecution team lobbied heavily for a state prison commitment, registering an official objection when the presiding judge chose instead to grant the more lenient combination of a county jail stay and probation.
“Mr. Kessler lost his life in a violent attack that took him from his family and his wife of 43 years,” said District Attorney Erik Nasarenko, as quoted by KTLA. “Given the circumstances of this case and the death that resulted, we believe a state prison commitment was the appropriate and just sentence.”
One year in jail for killing a family man who had been married for 43 years? What sort of ludicrous joke is that?
He killed a Jew … lucky
The judge gave him any jail time… in France a while back a judge let a vicious murderer of an elderly Jewish woman go free attributing the vile act to “Marijuana.” It’s open season on Jews.
(Had the victim of this hate crime been another ethnicity there’d a nationwide outcry).
“caused death”?!? It’s better off that the fake news media writes this, do we have to parrot them?
Say it out. He MURDERED a Jew, but Jewish blood is cheap so he gets probation.
One year in jail for vicious murder ????????
May this murderer and all those involved in this sick judgement suffer their own violent and vicious deaths very soon.
I hope they appeal. Looks like the US is headed the way of France.
Sue Mr. Alnaji into oblivion.
Just imagine what the jail sentence would have been had this been in reverse. Everything would have been but the same but it would have been a pro-Israel activist causing the death or a pro-Hamas activist
Hmm. Injuring someone during a protest in a public park can be prosecuted as a federal civil rights violation, but only if specific criteria are met—such as if the violence was motivated by bias or targeted at federally protected activities. Otherwise, it is typically handled as a state-level assault or battery crime rather than a federal civil rights violation.
Any legal eagles think Mr. Kessler’s civil rights were violated?
Our bankrupt leaders will stage rallies in major league stadiums to protest against smart phones. When our brothers and sisters are getting butchered, all we hear are crickets