Overview
- Cornett received a life sentence in federal court after pleading guilty to two hate-crime counts involving attempts to kill plus a firearms offense.
- Prosecutors said he followed a box truck into a Sheetz off I-95 in Spotsylvania County on Feb. 28, 2024, then questioned the men about time in the United States before opening fire.
- He fired six rounds, striking the driver three times and the driver’s friend once, and both victims survived.
- Cornett confessed to a Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s deputy that he acted because of his perception of the victims’ national origin.
- The FBI’s Richmond Field Office investigated with the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, and the case was prosecuted by the Eastern District of Virginia and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.