According to past filings, the Oklahoman believed he was sent by “Elohim” to “fight crybaby Satan”

Sean Patrick Palmer of Perkins, Okla., is facing up two decades in federal prison after agreeing with prosecutors to plead guilty to an April 2024 hate-crime attack of The Satanic Temple’s Salem HQ with an improvised explosive.

Federal investigators claimed that Palmer spray-painted a “warning” on TST’s headquarters at 64 Bridge Street in September 2023, then returned seven months later to attack it, leaving another note that read, among other things, “ELOHIM SEND ME TO FIGHT CRYBABY SATAN, BUT WANT ME TO MAKE HARD EFFORT SO NO ONE DIES. I OBEY.” The homemade bomb “partially detonated causing minor fire and related damage to TST’s exterior,” according to the FBI investigator’s description, and thankfully, no one was killed or injured despite the gunpowder the pipe had been filled with and metal nails that had been taped around it.

For more background and images on the bombing, see our past recap from May 2024; the last major news update came in June 2024 when Palmer entered his initial plea of not guilty.

Per the latest filing in United States v. Palmer (1:24-cr-10132), Palmer is set to be sentenced to 5 to 20 years in prison for the arson attack.

Federal sentencing guidelines involve a calculation based on how severe the offense is determined to be, which restricts judicial discretion. The structure is described as “other than a dwelling and a place of public use”. Now, in the past, people have lived at and stayed at The Satanic Temple’s Salem headquarters in the past, both managers like Ash Astaroth who worked there and the Satanic Estate’s renting out a space inside as a hotel room, so Palmer could have been looking at even more sever penalties. Meanwhile, “place of public use” also seems a bit more narrow than you might intuitively think if the idea is that having to pay for entry distinguishes it from a public place.

But the other important increase is the enhancer for selecting a victim based on “the actual or perceived religion of any person”.

District Court Judge Indira Talwani still must accept the plea deal for it to be final.

That building at 64 Bridge Street in Salem is The Satanic Temple’s most public-facing permanent facility and the registered physical and/or mail address to the self-described religion’s numerous for-profit and nonprofit corporations. This includes the for-profit corporation that owns the property, 64 Bridge LLC d/b/a “Satanic Art Gallery”; as well as for-profits United Federation of Churches LLC, d/b/a “The Satanic Temple” and Cinephobia, LLC; nonprofit Reason Alliance Ltd.; and tax-exempt church The Satanic Temple, Inc.