A West Virginia man who admitted threatening jurors and witnesses in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life trial was sentenced to 78 months in prison Wednesday.
Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office there.
Lloyd, a self-proclaimed white supremacist, ran a prolific and hateful website that, for much of the spring and summer, took aim at the prosecutors, witnesses, victims and jurors in the synagogue case. The three-month trial culminated in early August with a death sentence for shooter Robert Bowers, who killed 11 people in the 2018 attack.
In a series of emails and blog posts that escalated as the death penalty trial against Bowers progressed, Lloyd called for so-called lone wolves to target synagogues and Jews.
“Walk into a synagogue and gun down 11 Jews and one rabbi,” he wrote in late May. “That’s how you make a difference, people.”
Lloyd also took aim at jurors in the case, writing in one website post: “Y’all who are on the jury, make sure to vote what you know in your heart is morally correct.”
A news release from the U.S. attorney said Lloyd admitted that he engaged in this conduct because of the actual or perceived ties to the Jewish community of the witnesses and the victims of Bowers, which was part of his plea agreement.
First Published: December 20, 2023, 8:27 p.m.
