28-year-old Patriot Front member Jared Boyce plead guilty to possession of child pornography, and eight other related offenses, in a Utah court in April., according to local news media sources who publicized the guilty plea on Saturday.
Patriot Front member facing 30 years for child porn chargesUtah native Jared M. Boyce, 28, was one of 31 members of the extremist group arrested last year after they were found in the rear of a U-Haul van, planning to disrupt and intimidate an LGBTQ pride event in Coeur… pic.twitter.com/bnrcu9TyFB
— Emanuel ☔ (@realfludd) May 28, 2023
Boyce will face up to 30 years in prison at the upcoming sentencing on Tuesday.
James Boyce and the Patriot Front’s criminal endeavours
Boyce, along with 31 other Patriot Front members, was arrested last year near a Pride event in Idaho in 2022 for conspiracy to riot. Six of the 31 members were charged, although only Alexander Sisenstein has yet been convicted.
Many group members evaded trial and currently have active warrants out for their arrest, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).
Police, as a result of the arrest, searched Boyce’s phone where they found explicit images of children. Boyce later admitted to sending explicit images of himself to a 16-year-old girl and having sexually explicit conversations about children online.
Boyce was kicked out of his mother’s home following his arrest, according to the SPLC.
What is Patriot Front?
Patriot Front is a Texas-based white supremacist group that believes that the United States belongs solely to white people, according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL.)
The group is responsible for the majority of white supremacist propaganda since 2019, the ADL states.
In 2021, the group’s propaganda was used to target Jewish institutions across the United States including the Museum of Tolerance-Beit HaShoah in Los Angeles, the Jewish Community Center in Rockville, Maryland, as well as synagogues in Massachusetts and Washington DC.