A California couple who allegedly vandalized a Black Lives Matter mural near their Martinez home has now been hit with several new charges.
David Nelson, 54, and Nicole Anderson, 43, have been charged with burglarizing a dead man’s home, and Nelson has also been charged with selling methamphetamine, according to KTVU.
Authorities seized nearly a half-pound of meth from Nelson’s home.
Anderson was seen on a viral video in July 2020 painting over the BLM mural an hour after it was painted in the middle of the day. They were charged with vandalism and civil rights violation infractions, and their trial was scheduled to begin this year. The new charges, however, may upend that timing.
According to The Mercury News, Nelson and Anderson broke into the home of a recently deceased man on Adler Avenue in unincorporated Walnut Creek. They were arrested following calls to police by concerned neighbors.
The pair was linked to two cars regularly seen in the area, and upon an investigation of their vehicles and home, the drugs were discovered.
In 2020, when the couple vandalized the mural at the height of protests for racial justice following police officers’ killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the two were praised by Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who said they should be commended for their “bravery” and that the authorities who charged them with a hate crime “should be impeached.”
Nelson, on the show, said he has “no problem with Black people,” but is bothered by the BLM movement because “they have a hidden agenda” and “we’re sick of the narrative.”
“Why do you think you were charged with a hate crime?” Carlson asked, according to a previous Mercury News report.
“It’s because we decided to stand against an organization we don’t agree with,” Nelson replied, saying, “We’re being silenced. It’s a cancel culture that we’re living in.”
“They’ve done more harm than they’ve done good, Tucker,” Nelson added. “When we stand up and give them a little iota, taste of their own medicine, this is the extreme measures that are being taken and we can’t let it happen.”
“Man, you’ve got a lot of brass,” an impressed Carlson said. “This was a brave thing to do.”
The average penalty for drug distribution in California is between three and five years in prison.
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