Multiple people charged with burning objects with the ‘intent to intimidate’ on night of 2017 White nationalist march in Charlottesville

By Devan Cole, CNN

A grand jury in Virginia has indicted three individuals for allegedly burning an object with the “intent to intimidate” on the night of a 2017 White nationalist demonstration at the University of Virginia, in which scores of people marched through the Charlottesville campus carrying flaming tiki torches and chanting White nationalist slogans.

The demonstration at UVA gained international notoriety with its images and videos of White nationalists who chanted “Jews will not replace us,” “You will not replace us” and “Blood and soil,” a phrase evoking Nazi philosophy on ethnic identity.

Charging documents reviewed by CNN show that an Albemarle County grand jury indicted the three individuals in February for burning “an object on the property of another or a highway or other public place with intent to intimidate in violation of Virginia code.” Court documents reflect that the University of Virginia Police Department is involved in the investigation.

James Hingeley, the commonwealth attorney for Albemarle County, put out a statement about the investigation this week that did not name the individuals who have been indicted but said that they “were issued as part of a criminal investigation that is active and ongoing.”

The county’s former commonwealth attorney, Robert Tracci, declined to pursue charges related to the August 2017 demonstration when he was in office, a move that was criticized by Hingeley as he sought to unseat Tracci in the last election. Hingeley took office in 2020.

“There are so many people in our community … who were there on August 11 who were terrorized by torch-wielding terrorists,” Hingeley said in 2019 during the campaign. “There’s a law, a burning objects law, that says they can be prosecuted but our prosecutor’s not doing that.”

CNN has reached out to Tracci for comment.

The three individuals charged with a felony violation are: Dallas Medina of Ravenna, Ohio; Wil Zachary Smith of Nacona, Texas; and Tyler Bradley Dykes of Bluffton, South Carolina.

Medina was arrested on Monday, according to court records, but is not currently in custody. Dykes, who was arrested on Friday, and Smith, who was arrested in early January, are both in custody.

Smith has also been charged with violating a Virginia statute that makes it illegal to maliciously release a chemical irritant such as tear gas, with that offense also having allegedly taken place the day of the UVA march, according to court records.

The three defendants have not yet entered a plea. An attorney for Smith declined to comment. CNN has been unable to reach both Medina and an attorney representing Dykes.

The Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office said in its statement on Monday that the “burning an object with the intent to intimidate” charge is a low-level felony offense that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The separate crime Smith has been charged with carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

There is no statute of limitations for the charges brought.

The demonstration at UVA was followed by a “Unite the Right” rally held the next day in downtown Charlottesville that turned violent and later deadly. Counter-protestor Heather Heyer was killed when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protesters gathered to oppose the gathering of White nationalist and other right-wing groups. Nineteen others were injured in the incident.

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CNN’s Yahya Abou-Ghazala and Amir Vera contributed to this report.