Ohio 'incel' who plotted to kill women at college is sentenced to 6 years in prison
An Ohio man who described himself as an “incel” and plotted to kill women at a university was sentenced to over six years in prison Thursday, federal prosecutors said.
Tres Genco, 24, wrote that he was wanted to kill women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge,” the U.S. attorney’s office in Cincinnati said, and he had previously bought a bulletproof vest and a skull mask, a rifle and handgun magazines.
No one was hurt and the plan was never carried out. Genco was arrested in 2021 and pleaded guilty in October 2022 to one count of attempting to commit a hate crime.
A judge on Thursday sentenced Genco to six years and eight months in prison, although he has been in custody for almost three years after his arrest in July 2021.
Prosecutors argued in court documents that Genco was “fueled by misogynistic hatred” and that he “plotted the mass murder of women and intended to carry it out.”
He conducted internet searches about a specific university, according to court documents, but the name of the university in the plot has not been released by officials if it is known.
Genco of Hillsboro, a small town east of Cincinnati, described himself as an “incel,” a term that means “involuntary celibate.” It’s a misogynistic male community mostly online who hate women and believe they are owed sex from women.
Genco “idolized Elliot Rodger,” prosecutors said, and he wrote online that he identified with the 22-year-old California gunman who killed six people at random in the college town of Isla Vista in 2014 and then shot himself.
He bought the mask and bulletproof vest and a 5.56 mm rifle in January and February of 2019, and in July of that year his “ interest in Incel philosophy and violence escalated,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
In August 2019, Genco wrote a document in which he talked about incels, said he hated women and that “I will slaughter out of hatred, jealousy, and revenge.”
Genco's attorney, Richard Monahan, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening.
Monahan wrote in a sentencing memorandum that there remain questions about how serious any plan was, and it “was not significantly close, as compared with the typical ‘attempt offender,’ to the commission of the substantive offense.” Genco also wrote the manifesto while drunk during a trip to Greece, he said.
“Mr. Genco has obviously learned from his mistakes, has matured tremendously from when he committed this offense at the young age of 19, and is not only demonstrating his rehabilitation, but is extending his positive thinking to those around him,” Monahan wrote.
Cheryl Mimura, FBI Cincinnati acting special agent in charge, said in a statement Thursday that law enforcement stopped what would have been a deadly attack.
“Genco intended to carry out a devastating mass murder of innocent women in this state for no other reason than the fact that he hated them,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker said in a statement. “Everybody deserves to live without threats of violence or fearing acts of terror.”
Prosecutors asked the judge to sentencer Genco to the maximum 12½ years allowed under a plea agreement, and Genco's attorney asked for a sentence of time already served, documents show.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
