NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A neo-Nazi from Canada was ordered Wednesday to serve almost four years in prison for two assaults he committed in Nashville during a series of rowdy street protests last summer by the Goyim Defense League.
Davidson County Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier sentenced Ryan McCann, 30, to three years in prison for felony civil rights intimidation stemming from his assault on a young Jewish man in a downtown parking lot.
He handed down a separate nine-month sentence for a misdemeanor assault of a bar employee during a skirmish on a downtown street.
McCann's attorney, Olin Baker, had argued that the Goyim Defense League member was being singled out for his unpopular, but legally protected views.
"The state is here playing on sympathy, 'Hey, this guy right here is not likeable. I want you to put him in prison,'" Baker said, pointing to McCann as he sat at the defense table in an orange jail jumpsuit.
Judge Dozier disagreed, saying McCann's conduct was the issue — not his words. The Canadian man came to Nashville in July 2024 "itching" for a fight, the judge added.
"If this was just a First Amendment issue, we wouldn't be here," he added.
Video, first obtained by NewsChannel 5 Investigates, shows the night that the group began taunting the young Jewish man as he stood outside his pickup truck.
Related: Dramatic video shows neo-Nazi assault on 20-year-old Jewish man
Suddenly, McCann attacked. When the victim tried to escape to the opposite side of his truck, other members of the group joined in.
When the incident was over, McCann and his crew celebrated.
"White f***ing power, bro," one person said, as McCann gave a Nazi salute.
As a result of that incident, a jury recently convicted McCann of civil rights intimidation.
He also recently pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for using a Nazi flag to jab an employee of a downtown bar during a street skirmish.
Prosecutors put their own director of communications on the stand to make the argument that the case was high profile and deserved a sentence that would send a message.
"To have so many international outlets express interest and write articles about this case, I had never seen that — not from an assault," Steve Hayslip testified.
Olin Baker pounced.
"They manufactured this case. They manufactured all this press coverage," the defense attorney told the judge.
Prosecutor Wesley King quickly responded.
"If we manufactured this case, then how was it that Mr. McCann was convicted in one and pled guilty in another?"
Part of Baker's argument stemmed from what we did not see on the video from the nighttime assault. The young Jewish man, who indicated he had been drinking, pulled an AR-15 out of his truck to fend off the neo-Nazis.
Baker tried to get a detective to admit the victim should have been prosecuted.
"I'm not targeting a victim because they pulled a weapon in self-defense," Metro Nashville Police detective Steve Rowlett told Baker. "He was being pursued by Mr. McCann."
The prosecutor argued that the neo-Nazi attack on a man armed with an AR-15 could have carried enormous consequences.
"The amount of chaos that could have happened based on what Mr. McCann was doing is something that, frankly, most of us here don't even want to think about," King added.
In the case of the downtown bar employee, Baker also argued that he threw the first punch and he was the one who should have been facing a judge. Police initially charged Deago Buck, but prosecutors later dropped those charges.
This is a breaking story. Check back with NewsChannel5.com for additional information and watch NewsChannel 5 at 6 p.m.
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