Shannon Conley, 19, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The maximum penalty for her crime was five years, but federal prosecutors sought four years in light of her cooperation with ongoing investigations.
Yahoo News reports that Conley appeared in federal court dressed in a black and tan headscarf and told the judge that she had disavowed jihad and never planned to hurt anyone.
“I am glad I have learned of their true identity here and not on the front lines,” she said. “I disavow these radical views I’ve come to know and I now believe in the true Islam in which peace is encouraged.”
Despite her tearful plea, U.S. District Judge Raymond P. Moore decreed that she be sent to the penitentiary and also sentenced her to three years of supervised release and 100 hours of community service.
“I’m not going to take a chance with you,” he told her in court, while also barring her from possessing the black powder used in explosives. “I don’t know what has been crystalized in your mind. I’m still not sure you get it.”
Conley’s fate was sealed after she scoffed at the FBI’s attempts to dissuade her interest in jihad back in 2013. Even though authorities showed restraint in her case, Conley told them in no uncertain terms that she was determined to wage jihad.
The bureau met with her over the course of several months after they learned that she spoke about terrorism with members of a suburban church in Denver.
Conley, who changed her first name to Halima on Facebook, was apprehended last year at the Denver International Airport where she was set to board a flight bound for the border of Syria and Turkey to meet with a man she met online and fell in love with, who is known to be an ISIS terrorist.
During her first meeting with FBI agents, she even wore a t-shirt that read, “Sniper. Don’t run, you’ll die trying.”
According to Judge Moore, Conley was an isolated high school dropout with no friends, insolent and desperate for attention.
“I’m not saying her actions were a direct product of mental illness, but she’s a bit of a mess,” Moore said. “She’s pathologically naïve.”
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