GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- A federal judge has sentenced Adam Fox of Wyoming to 16 years in prison for conspiracy to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Judge Robert Jonker also ordered the 39-year-old Fox to five years of supervised release after his prison term ends. He the third of four conspirators convicted in the plot.
On Wednesday, co-conspirator Barry Croft Jr., 47, of Delaware is scheduled to be sentenced. Both men were jury-convicted in August. Croft was also convicted of possessing an improvised explosive device, which was a commercial firework refashioned with shrapnel to serve as a hand-grenade.
They hatched a plot in 2020 to abduct the Governor from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids and use the destructive weapons to harm or hinder Whitmer's security detail and any police that might respond. Specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice says they considered placing a bomb under an interstate overpass near a pedestrian boardwalk.
“Today’s sentence reflects the Department of Justice’s unwavering commitment to protecting our elected officials, law enforcement officers, and dedicated public servants from criminal threats and violence — and to holding the perpetrators of such acts fully accountable under the law," Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said. He with the Justice Department's National Security Division.
The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Atttorney's Office for the Western District of Michigan. The National Security Division's Counterterrorism Section assisted.
Co-defendant Ty Garbin, 27, of Hartland, Michigan, pleaded guilty in January 2021 and was ordered to serve 30 months in prison. Kaleb Franks, 28, of Waterford, Michigan, received a term of four years in prison after pleading guilty and testifying at both trials. Co-defendants Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta were acquitted at the first trial in April 2022.
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