George Horn pleaded guilty to damaging religious property after spray-painting swastikas on gravestones at a Dundalk Jewish cemetery.

Tuesday's plea is the admission. The sentence is not. The U.S. Attorney's Office said caretakers found 12 gravestones marked and that some had to be replaced. The Banner, citing the plea agreement, put a number and a cost on that: two stones replaced, and more than $6,500. Those details are not in the office's public release.

George Horn, 36, of Dundalk, pleaded guilty Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, to damaging religious property after he spray-painted swastikas and other symbols on gravestones at Ohr Knesseth Israel Anshe Sfard Cemetery, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland said. U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes announced the plea. CBS Baltimore, FOX45, The Banner, and the New York Post reported it the same day. Horn admitted he targeted the cemetery because it is a Jewish cemetery, the office said. U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox set sentencing for 3 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, 2027. The count carries a maximum of three years in prison. The office said federal sentences are typically below the maximum.

According to the guilty plea, as the office described it, Horn entered the cemetery in July 2023 and used black spray paint to deface gravestones, mostly with swastikas. Caretakers found 12 gravestones marked days later. Paint in the outline of a swastika remained on some stones after they tried to clean them, and those stones had to be replaced, the office said. The cemetery, in Dundalk, was established in the late 19th century. The Banner, citing the plea agreement, reported that two headstones had to be replaced entirely, that the Jewish Cemetery Association of Greater Baltimore spent more than $6,500, and that Horn agreed to pay for the damage. The office's release did not give that dollar figure or say how many stones were replaced.

The office said investigators found antisemitic messages and other items in Horn's car and storage unit, including a journal with references to Nazism and white supremacy, a nine-second video of him spray-painting two gravestones, and a translated copy of Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf on his phone. The Banner, citing court documents, reported the phone also held texts in which he told someone he was going to the cemetery and messages that contained slurs, and that the video shows his hand, which has a distinctive tattoo, painting the stones. The office said the FBI, the Baltimore County Police Department, and the Baltimore Police Department investigated, with help from the Anti-Defamation League. The plea is what Horn admitted in court. The prison term, if any, is what Judge Maddox imposes in January. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.