RICHMOND, Va. — A Caroline County man who pleaded guilty to two federal hate crime charges in connection to a 2024 shooting at a Virginia Sheetz was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.
Douglas Wayne Cornett, 58, pleaded guilty in June to federal hate crimes charges involving attempts to kill and to discharging a firearm during a federal crime of violence.
In Feburary 2024, Cornett followed a box truck driven by a Latino man into the parking lot of a Sheetz off of Interstate 95 in Spotsylvania County.
He then asked another Latino man who was friends with the driver how long he had been present in the United States. When he learned the man driving the box truck had arrived within the last two years, Cornett drew a handgun and fired six rounds, striking the driver three times and the driver's friend once. Both men survived the shooting.
Cornett confessed to a Spotsylvania County Sheriff's Deputy that he shot the victims because of his perception of their national origin.
“No one in this country should be hunted down and shot at because of who they are or where they come from,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “This sentence reflects the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to protecting communities from hate-fueled violence and to hold accountable those who attack others based on prejudice.”
“As our nation recovers from recent political violence, today’s verdict is a welcome reminder that terror motivated by hate will not be tolerated,” said Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “My office will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to investigate and vigorously prosecute those who choose brutality and aggression over civility and reason.”
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