An Indiana man inspired by the Orlando, Florida, Pulse Nightclub massacre to plot terroristic acts was sentenced to 15 years of prison on Monday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Marlonn Hicks, 31, of Crown Point, Indiana, was a vocal supporter of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), according to a DOJ press release.
Hicks provided two manuals to an FBI agent, who he thought was an ISIS supporter, on how to assemble and use explosives on June 21, 2016, nine days after the Pulse attack. He also discussed terrorist plots with the intent to generate “more of an audience,” gave information surrounding poisons and how to get and use firearms.
Government officials and the FBI had restricted Hick’s capability of traveling to an ISIS controlled region, according to the report. (RELATED: US, Iraqi Air Force Obliterate ISIS Terrorists In Syria)
“If [government officials] had me on anything I’d already be dead cause in Shaa Allah [translated as ‘god willing’] I ain’t going to jail,” Hicks said to an FBI agent during the surveillance period, according to the DOJ report.
Hicks was arrested in July 2016 on federal charges with no incident. He has been under federal custody since the arrest.
“Rather than mourning the tragic attacks in Orlando, Hicks was inspired to try to commit a terror attack to kill innocent victims in the United States,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Kirsch II said, the DOJ reported.
Hicks faces three years of supervised release once out of prison.
This was not the first time an American citizen was captured by government officials for terrorism. Ibraheem Musaibli, 28, of Dearborn, Michigan, was caught by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in July after being recognized as an ISIS fighter. At least 71 Americans have traveled to Iraq or Syria to join ISIS, according to a George Washington University Program on Extremism database, The Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
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