Awwwwww.
“Crown Point man gets 15 years for spreading information in hopes of planning terror attack in U.S.,” by Becky Jacobs, Chicago Tribune, August 20, 2018:
A Crown Point man who shared information about how to create explosives and poisons in hopes of carrying out an attack in the United States was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Marlonn Hicks, 31, wore an orange jail uniform Monday in Hammond’s federal court as his parents watched him be sentenced.
“I’m not a menace to society, your honor,” Hicks said in a statement read by his attorney. “I’m not a terrorist. I’m a big teddy bear that got emotional.”
Hicks pleaded guilty in October 2016 to distributing information regarding the manufacture and use of explosives, with the intent that the information be used for and in furtherance of a crime of violence.
Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen sentenced Hicks Monday to 180 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
“This exemplifies the government’s commitment to prevent terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirsch said in a statement. “Rather than mourning the tragic attacks in Orlando, Hicks was inspired to commit a terror attack to kill innocent victims in the United States.”
On June 12, 2016, a gunman killed 49 people and wounded more than 50 others at Pulse nightclub in Florida “resulting in one of the deadliest mass shooting attacks in United States history,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum for Hicks.
“While a stunned nation grieved and vigils were held throughout the country, Marlonn Hicks was inspired,” the memorandum states. “…Five days after the Pulse attack, Hicks proclaimed that given recent events, he wanted to ‘die here’ and ‘do something major … without being caught.’”
“I intended that attack be carried out in the name of ISIL and in support of ISIL,” Hicks admitted in his plea agreement….
Hicks was raised as a Christian, but he began practicing Islam about nine or 10 years, King said. This change was “not motivated by any politics” but instead was in “search for a creed for him to live his life,” King said.
Hicks “embraced it with enthusiasm that is not unusual for the recently converted,” King said. But Hicks was exposed to content about innocent people killed in the Middle East and “some fairly sophisticated propaganda,” King said, which led to the crime committed….
“You live in a world enveloped with hate and that world has eaten you up,” Van Bokkelen said to Hicks.
It may sound corny, but “I believe that love wins,” Van Bokkelen said, and “all you have to do is embrace it.”