Four New York Men Convicted in Plot to Bomb Synagogues
Four men who plotted to bomb New York City synagogues and fire heat-seeking missiles at military planes were convicted by a federal court jury in Manhattan.
The defendants, James Cromitie, 44, David Williams, 29, Onta Williams, 34, and Laguerre Payen, 29, face as long as life in prison when they are sentenced on the charges, which include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the U.S. and conspiracy to kill U.S. employees.
“Homegrown terrorism is a serious threat, and today’s convictions affirm our commitment to do everything we can to protect against it,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in an e-mailed statement. “The defendants in this case agreed to plant bombs and use missiles they thought were very real weapons of terrorism. We are safer today as a result of these convictions.”
The case against the four men, all of whom lived in Newburgh, New York, began in 2008 when the FBI began sending an informant, Shahed Hussain, to mosques to pose as a wealthy Pakistani businessman so he could interact with suspects in other terrorism investigations.
Hussain had been attending the Masjid-al-Ikhlas mosque in Newburgh for about six months when he was approached in the parking lot by Cromitie, who introduced himself as Abdul Rehman, the informant testified at the trial. Hussain said Cromitie told him he was unhappy that Muslims were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan and expressed a “desire to do something to America.”
Dozens of Meetings
Prosecutors said the two men met dozens of times over the next 10 months to plan their attack, with Cromitie eventually recruiting the other three defendants to participate. The four were arrested in a coordinated sting operation in the Riverdale section of the Bronx on the night of May 20, 2009.
Prosecutors say the men planted three devices packed with the plastic explosive C4 in two cars. One was parked outside the Riverdale Temple and one was parked outside the Riverside Jewish Center. They were planning to later fire heat-seeking Stinger missiles at military planes at an Air National Guard base located at Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, prosecutors said.
All of the weapons had been disabled by the FBI and were provided to the suspects by the informant, who was posing as a member of the Pakistan-based terror organization Jaish-e- Mohammed.
Anti-Aircraft Missiles
The jury today found all four men guilty of seven counts, including acquiring and using anti-aircraft missiles and attempted use of weapons on the temple, the Jewish center and on the air guard base, following eight days of deliberations. Cromitie and David Williams also were found guilty of attempting to kill U.S. officers, while Onta Williams and Payen were found not guilty of that count. The men will be sentenced March 24.
The defendants showed little reaction upon the reading of the verdict, while Alicia McWilliams-McCollum, an aunt of defendant David Williams, had to be escorted out of the courtroom.
“This justice system is going to hell,” McWilliams- McCollum said as she was leaving.
Attorneys for the defendants said during the trial that their clients were victims of entrapment, and indicated after the verdict that they would appeal the decision.
‘Miscarriage of Justice’
“It’s a miscarriage of justice, just like this whole investigation, case and trial,” Susanne Brody, a federal public defender representing Onta Williams, said while leaving the courthouse following the verdict.
Defense lawyers said the four men were impoverished, petty criminals who were lured into the plot by a paid government informant who helped them buy groceries and pay the rent, bought them coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts and meals from Denny’s, and promised reward money and vacations without authorization from his FBI handlers.
“Obviously we’re disappointed,” said Sam Braverman, an attorney for Payen. “This was an excellent jury and I don’t blame them at all. I appreciate their effort during the eight days they deliberated. I’m disappointed with their verdict, I do believe my client was entrapped and I’m sorry that the jury didn’t agree with me.”
Much of the trial, which began Aug. 23, focused on Hussain, who started working for the FBI in 2002 after being arrested for fraud in a government sting operation for taking $1,000 from another informant to help illegally obtain a driver’s license.
Informant Cross-Examination
Hussain was on the stand for the majority of the trial, a total of 13 days, during which he faced hours of cross- examination from defense attorneys about his life in Pakistan, his immigration to the U.S., his finances and his beginnings as an FBI informant.
The verdict “tells you that entrapment will not likely work in a terrorism case,” said Karen Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University’s law school, in an interview outside the courthouse following the verdict. “This was the strongest entrapment defense we’ve seen.”
The case is U.S. v. Cromitie, 09-cr-00558, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: John Pickering at jpickering@bloomberg.net.
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