A U.S. judge on Wednesday sentenced four family members to life in prison for convictions stemming from a federal terrorism and kidnapping case that began in 2017 with the search for a toddler who went missing from Georgia and was later found dead when authorities raided a squalid compound in northern New Mexico.
The sentencing comes months after jurors convicted the four defendants in what prosecutors had called a “sick end-of-times scheme.”
The defendants were unsuccessful in their arguments that the severity of the sentences violated their constitutional rights. That will be just one of the arguments they plan to bring up when appealing their convictions. At trial, they suggested that the case was the product of “government overreach” and that they were targeted because they are Muslim.
SUSPECT FROM ‘EXTREMIST MUSLIM’ COMPOUND LIVED IN US ILLEGALLY FOR OVER 20 YEARS: OFFICIALS
The fifth defendant — Jany Leveille, a Haitian national — avoided being part of a three-week trial last fall by pleading guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and being in possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the United States. Under the terms of her plea agreement, she had faced up to 17 years in prison.
Judge William Johnson sentenced her to 15 years, noting that Leveille had received treatment for a diagnosis of acute schizophrenia that followed her arrest in 2018. She had undergone competency evaluations and began taking medication.
“The facts are so horrendous. But also with Ms. Leveille, this is the first time there has been any acceptance of responsibility” among the defendants, the judge said, noting that it was significant that Leveille apologized to the toddler’s mother and to her co-defendants.
Prosecutors said during the trial that it was under Leveille’s instruction that the family fled Georgia with the boy, ending up in a remote stretch of the high desert where they conducted firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against…
Read the full article here
