(CNN) A Klansman caught on video firing a gun in the middle of the 2017 white nationalist "Unite The Right" rally in Charlottesville has been sentenced to four years in prison by a judge in Virginia.

Richard Preston was handed an eight-year sentence Tuesday, with four years suspended. He also will serve three years of supervised probation.

Preston has said he was a the white nationalist rally as a member of a militia -- but he is also Imperial Wizard of a Ku Klux Klan chapter in Maryland. He is shown on the video yelling the n-word and firing a gun in the direction of a black protester who is seen wielding a blowtorch.

Preston was charged with shooting a firearm within 1,000 feet of a school. He pleaded no contest to the charges.

Before his sentencing the case took an interesting turn. A black R & B musician named Daryl Davis stood up for him in court, paid his bail, and made an offer to the judge: he wanted to take Preston to the National African American History Museum in an effort to reeducate him.

Read More