The longest day of the Year proved to be especially long for Nick Mucci!

FREEHOLD, NJ – Nicholas G. Mucci, an associate of the NJ chapter of the hate group White Lives Matter, wept as he pleaded guilty Thursday afternoon to charges that he attempted to smoke bomb and pepper spray a sold-out benefit concert for One People’s Project at an Asbury Park, NJ church in 2023. In addition, he pleaded guilty to gun charges stemming from a search of his home after his arrest that turned up an unregistered firearm.

Mucci, 29, stood before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Chad N. Cagan and pled guilty to charges or risking widespread injury or damage and unlawful possession of an assault firearm. At one point he began weeping prompting Judge Cagan to give him some time to compose himself.

On January 27, 2023, a show put on by the Light Brigade Collective was held at Trinity Episcopal Parish as a benefit for One People’s Project and featured Pain of Truth, End It, Restraining Order, Threat 2 Society and Hold My Own. It was a sold-out event and it generated thousands for the antifascist organization. As the show drew to a close, Mucci emerged from a blue Honda CRV fully masked, shouted “WLM!” and threw smoke bombs before quickly getting back into his car and driving off. He returned an hour later, and attempted to pepper spray those outside but accidentally spraying himself. Mucci was tracked down and arrested two months later after White Lives Matter including Mucci attempted to crash a St. Patrick’s Day event in his hometown of Toms River, NJ, courtesy of the smoke bombs he used that had the logo of the store they were sold at. Per local laws regarding the purchase of fireworks, Mucci had to present his old North Carolina driver’s license in order to purchase them on Oct. 23, 2022. That was one day before an event at Penn State University where Proud Boy founder Gavin McInnes and right wing troll Alex Stein were to appear. According to reports, Mucci and another WLM member Claudino Petruccelli, who himself had been arrested a year earlier for attempting to post White Lives Matter stickers on town property in Somerville, NJ, started pepper spraying protestors, escalating tensions there to the point that the event was canceled.

A search of Mucci’s home revealed White nationalist propaganda along with the spray used in the attack. It also revealed an AR-style rifle, several large-capacity ammunition magazines, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Mucci admitted in court that while he legally purchased the rifle in North Carolina, he did not have it registered in NJ, generating the charge.

Mucci is facing up to eight years in prison when he is sentenced on Aug. 16, which is also the same day that Ron Carr will be sentenced in nearby Ocean County, NJ after he pleaded guilty the same day as Mucci to Arson, Bias Intimidation, and two counts of Criminal Mischief when he scrawled swastikas on 14 homes and burned another down in the predominantly Jewish community of Lakewood, NJ.