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Conan Daily (13 September 2021)

By Quashawn Jamar James

William Stepanyan, 23, of Glendale, California, United States agreed to plead to one count of conspiracy and one hate crime charge on September 8, 2021. He will appear in court in the Airport Courthouse in Los Angeles on November 16, 2020.

Stepanyan, who is of Armenian descent, will face a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison after he enters the guilty pleas to the two felony offenses. When a new war broke out between military forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan in September 2020, tensions in Turkish and Armenian communities escalated and he was personally affected.

On November 4, 2020, Stepanyan sent a text message saying that he planned to go hunting for Turks. Later that day, he met with a group of Armenian-Americans including Harutyun Harry Chalikyan, 24, of Tujunga, California to protest what they considered to be Turkish aggression against Armenians.

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