(AWD)
A Colorado teenager girl arrested last year as she was heading to Syria to help ISIS militants was sentenced Friday to 4 years in prison after the judge called her a bit of a mess.(Video)
Shannon Conley, 19, pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. An emotional Conley spoke in court on Friday, saying "Even though I supported a jihad, it was not meant to hurt anyone. It was always in the defense of Muslims." She had to pause to compose herself, and then apologized to the judge, saying she was embarrassed by her arrogance.
"I do not believe I am a threat to society and would appreciate an opportunity to prove it," Conley said.
Conley's lawyer, public defender Robert Pepin, said the Muslim convert was misled while exploring her faith. He argued that she should only spend 1 year in prison. Prosecutors argued for 48 months in prison, saying that she continues to demonstrate her defiance in jail with the guards. The judge agreed with the prosecution."That woman is in need of psychiatric help," Judge U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore asserted before sentencing Conley. "To me, it doesn't seem like she gets it."
Pepin, referring to Conley by her Muslim name, said she deeply regrets the decision to try to join ISIS. "Halima is fully aware that the fact that she was arrested may very well have saved her," Pepin said. "Like all of us, Halima has been horrified to learn of the slaughter and oppression at the hands of those controlling (the so-called Islamic State). It was never her vision to have any role in such horror."
"Is the solution to send her to prison? Absolutely not," Pepin said. Conley will get credit for the time she has served so far -- about 9 1/2 months.
Conley was also sentenced to 3 years of supervised release, when she will have to perform 100 hours of community service. Conley had faced a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and a fine up to $250,000.
According to the stipulated facts in her plea agreement, between Feb 2014 and April 8, 2014, Conley and a co-conspirator worked with others to provide material support and resources, including personnel and expert advice, to a foreign terrorist organizations -- Al-Qaeda and its affiliates, including al-Qaeda in Iraq, aka the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS), aka the Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), aka the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
Conley was arrested April 8 at Denver International Airport after telling FBI agents she was traveling to Syria to use her American military training to aid Islamic militants waging jihad or holy war, according to federal court records. She said "legitimate targets of attack" included U.S. military bases, government employees and public officials, the documents say.
Against her parent's wishes, Conley planned to marry a Tunisian man, who was fighting in Syria for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). She had met the man online and communicated with him on Skype. They agreed that Conley would travel to Syria to join her new fiancé but before traveling to Syria, she would refine and obtain additional training and skills in order to provide support and assistance to any AQ and/or ISIS fighter. Conley also intended to fight if it became necessary to do so, according to court documents.
As part of the conspiracy, Conley joined the U.S. Army Explorers (USAE) to be trained in U.S. military tactics and in firearms. She traveled to Texas and attended the USAE training. She also obtained first aid/nursing certification and National Rifle Association certification.
Conley knew that ISIS was a designated foreign terrorist organization and what she was doing was illegal. In fact, on numerous occasions, Special Agents with the FBI met with her in attempts to persuade her not to carry out her plans to travel overseas to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization and to engage in violent jihad.
On March 29, 2014, Conley's fiance, together with others, arranged for an airline ticket to be purchased for Conley to travel to Turkey, departing from Denver on April 8, 2014. On April 8, 2014, Conley traveled to Denver International Airport and attempted to board the flight to Turkey. She was then arrested by FBI agents.
During a subsequent search of her home, federal agents found DVDs of lectures by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Islamic terrorist, and videos by other jihadists, according to a press release by Jeffrey Dorschner, spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Walsh.
Agents also found shooting targets labeled with the number of rounds fired and the distance they were fired on.
Authorities began investigating Conley on Nov. 5, 2013, after they received a call from the pastor at Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada who saw Conley taking notes and drawing a sketch at the church.
Church officials have a heightened awareness about security because Faith Bible Chapel was the scene of a shooting in December 2007 when a man named Matthew Murray opened fire at the church's Youth with a Mission Training Center, killing two missionaries.
"Conspiring to providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization is a serious federal crime," said U.S. Attorney John Walsh. "The defendant in this case got lucky. The FBI arrested her after determining that she had been radicalized and planned to travel to Syria to support the brutal foreign terrorist organizations operating there. Had she succeeded in her plan to get to Syria, she would likely have been brutalized, killed or sent back to the United States to commit other crimes. Today's sentence underscores the seriousness of defendant's conduct, but pales in comparison to the penalty she would have paid had she not been stopped."
"This sentencing highlights the rapidly changing, shrinking nature of the world and the implications for law enforcement and public safety," said Special Agent in Charge Thomas Ravenelle. "Terrorist groups now have the ability to directly attract and even recruit U.S. residents to commit violence or provide other support on their behalf. Anyone in our community who takes deliberate steps to commit federal crimes in support of a declared terrorist organization will have those steps disrupted and will be arrested and prosecuted whenever appropriate and necessary in order to preserve the safety of our community."
