Virginia man sentenced to life in prison for federal hate crime shooting at Sheetz
SPOTSYLVANIA, Va. - A Virginia man will spend the rest of his life in prison after a shooting at a Sheetz gas station in Spotsylvania County that federal prosecutors say was motivated by hate.
What we know:
According to court documents, 58-year-old Douglas Wayne Cornett followed a box truck driven by a Latino man into a Sheetz along Interstate 95 on Feb. 28, 2024. Inside the store, he asked one of the men how long his friend had been in the United States.
When told he had arrived within the past two years, the shooter pulled out a handgun and opened fire, striking one victim three times and the other once.
Both men survived the attack. Cornett later confessed to a Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Deputy to shooting the victims because of his views of their national origin.
The sentence
A federal jury convicted the shooter of two hate-crime charges and one firearms offense. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced him to life in prison.
The Justice Department said the sentence reflects the seriousness of the attack and its impact on the victims and their community.
Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of Virginia called the shooting a "senseless and hate-filled act of violence." They said the outcome sends a clear message that hate crimes will be aggressively prosecuted under federal law.
The Source: Information from the U.S. Department of Justice - Eastern District of Virginia was used in this report.