Trio convicted of anti-Muslim bomb plot during presidential election
Three Kansas militia members who called themselves the 鈥淐rusaders鈥� were convicted Wednesday in a plot to detonate a bomb and kill Muslim immigrants a day after the 2016 presidential election.
The trio, Curtis Allen, Gavin Wright, both 50, and Patrick Stein, 48, were found guilty by a U.S. District Court jury of plotting to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to violate the civil rights of residents of an apartment complex in Garden City west of Wichita, Kansas.
Trial testimony revealed the three planned to explode explosive-laden vehicles at the complex and cause a 鈥渂loodbath to take the country back鈥� and show that Muslim 鈥渃ockroaches鈥� aren鈥檛 welcome in the United States.
The group鈥檚 plan was disrupted about three weeks before the election after the FBI decided that conversations secretly recorded by an FBI informant provided the probable cause to arrest the militia group.
Those recordings and testimony from the informant were the backbone of the prosecution鈥檚 case during the four-week trial in Wichita.
The jury decided the defendants engaged in an actual criminal plot to kill Muslims, not merely protected free speech and anti-Muslim rhetoric stirred up during the candidacy of Donald Trump, as defense attorneys argued.
The defendants, who remain in custody, each face possible life in prison terms when they are sentenced in June.
鈥淭errorists, whether foreign or domestic must be stopped and punished according to the law,鈥� Stephen McAllister, the U.S. Attorney for Kansas, said after the jury verdict. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 verdicts are a victory for the rule of law and national security.鈥�
The defendants affiliated with militia and the so-called III% antigovernment movement had stockpiled weapons and explosives and surveilled various targets before selecting the apartment complex, the jury was told.
Defense attorneys argued that FBI agents and their informant sucked the defendants into the plot, that the men were merely exercising their constitutional rights of gun ownership and free speech.
Allen鈥檚 attorney, Melody Brannon, argued to the jury that her client 鈥渨as a member of a militia. He loved his guns. This was a lifestyle.鈥�
聽鈥淭he government tried to criminalize that lifestyle,鈥� Brannon told the mostly white jury, reported.
But prosecutors countered, providing evidence that the militia group stockpiled weapons, surveilled potential targets and planned the bombing to deliver a message the day after the November 8, 2016 presidential election.
聽鈥淭hey wanted to send a message to the people living there that they鈥檙e not welcome in Garden City, they鈥檙e not welcome in southwest Kansas, they鈥檙e not welcome in the United States,鈥� Tony Mattivi, a federal prosecutor, said during closing arguments.
The Kansas chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) applauded the jury verdict.
"We welcome the guilty verdicts in this disturbing case and hope that anyone considering turning bigoted views into violent actions will see what their fate will be when apprehended and prosecuted by law enforcement authorities," CAIR spokesman Moussa Elbayoumy said in a statement.
