Champagne Song and their partner (and co-defendent) Joy Gibson.

Hi, this is Champagne Song, and me and my fellow Prairie Land defendants are in solitary confinement in Johnson County Jail, Texas. This is the statement that I read just before being sentenced to 100 years in prison [on June 23, 2026].

I don’t hate. I don’t hate anyone. I don’t hate cops. I don’t hate Trump. I don’t hate Nazis. My beliefs are composed thus: first, that we should help each other, and second, that we should protect one another. I never want to see anyone get hurt. I never want to see good people standing up for what they believe in, gunned down in the street. What we all saw happen to Renée Good and Alex Pretti is my worst nightmare. It was the kind of thing that I had feared for a long time, after dealing with officers who could be reckless, who could be bullies, who could be violent. But fear is not hate, sadness is not hate, and wanting people to live is not hate. And so, when I was standing in the street on July 4, 2025, in plain view, with reflective safety strips and high visibility clothing, what I saw right in front of my eyes was my worst nightmare. When I saw Lieutenant Thomas Gross, stop pursuing and point his gun at the back of a running, unarmed protester, as he testified. I was terrified. As a firearms instructor and a United States Marine Corps veteran, I understood what I was seeing.

I knew what it meant for someone to lean hard forward into their gun to prepare for recoil, as he testified.

As the evidence shows, I did not want to hurt anyone. I never had the intent to hurt anyone, and I tried my best to avoid anyone getting hurt.

It is impossible to say that I was trying to ambush anyone or........

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