(01-08-2019 09:46 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Quote:TAOS, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico judge who faced threats for allowing the release pending trial of suspects charged with child abuse at a ramshackle compound has announced her retirement.

Court officials say Judge Sarah Backus submitted her resignation letter Friday. She intends to retire at the end of the month.

In a statement Tuesday, Backus said she was honored to serve as judge in a district that includes Taos County, and noted her "controversial ruling" in August that cleared the way for the compound suspects' release.

Prosecutors argued the group was training children to use firearms for an anti-government mission - which the defendants' attorneys have disputed.

Backus said her decision last year stemmed from reforms that set high evidence standards to hold suspects without bail.

Link

DA Retires and now the Judge. Jihadists 2 Democrats 0.

Guessing they will show up for court?

(01-08-2019 11:31 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  

(01-08-2019 09:46 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Quote:TAOS, N.M. (AP) - A New Mexico judge who faced threats for allowing the release pending trial of suspects charged with child abuse at a ramshackle compound has announced her retirement.

Court officials say Judge Sarah Backus submitted her resignation letter Friday. She intends to retire at the end of the month.

In a statement Tuesday, Backus said she was honored to serve as judge in a district that includes Taos County, and noted her "controversial ruling" in August that cleared the way for the compound suspects' release.

Prosecutors argued the group was training children to use firearms for an anti-government mission - which the defendants' attorneys have disputed.

Backus said her decision last year stemmed from reforms that set high evidence standards to hold suspects without bail.

Link

DA Retires and now the Judge. Jihadists 2 Democrats 0.

Guessing they will show up for court?

Being held by the Feds, so yes.

Quote:ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - A federal grand jury has indicted five adults connected to the Amalia compound on terrorism charges. Jany Leveille, 36, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 40, Hujrah Wahhaj, 38, Subhanah Wahhaj, 36, and Lucas Morton, 41, have been charged with federal terrorism, kidnapping and firearms violations.

According to a news release from the Department of Justice, all five defendants are charged with "participating in a conspiracy from October 2017 to August 2018 to provide material support and resources, including currency, training, weapons, and personnel, knowing and intending that they were to be used in preparation for and in carrying out attacks to kill officers and employees of the United States."

The five adults were originally arrested in August of 2018 after deputies discovered they were living on a Taos County property with 11 malnourished children and the buried body of a 3-year-old.

"The indictment alleges that the defendants conspired to provide material support in preparation for violent attacks against federal law enforcement officers and members of the military,” said Assistant Attorney John C. General Demers in the release.

“Advancing beliefs through terror and violence has no place in America, and the National Security Division continues to make protecting against terrorism its top priority,” stated Attorney General Demers.

The indictment also states that Leveille, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Morton are charged with kidnapping and conspiracy to commit kidnapping. The indictment also includes the charges from their original indictment.

Link

Quote:ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- Four of the five people who were arrested after a raid of a Taos County compound could face the death penalty if they are convicted of federal charges.

Jany Leveille, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Lucas Morton face were in court Thursday facing new federal terrorism and kidnapping charges. They also face federal gun charges.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who is the father of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, the Georgia boy who prosecutors say was kidnapped and was found dead at the compound, will not face the death penalty.

While the death penalty is on the table, prosecutors have not decided whether they will seek it. They said it's an option that would have to be signed off by the U.S. Attorney General.

All five suspects pleaded not guilty.

The suspects' defense attorneys say their clients are being targeted because they are Muslim.

"This is about religious freedom, the right to bear arms and core American values. We all stand behind our clients 100 percent. They're not terrorists, they're innocent," said Carey Bhalla, defense attorney for Hujrah Wahhaj.

A trial is not expected to start until 2020.

Link

Are they out on bail?

(03-21-2019 03:44 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  Are they out on bail?

No. They're being held until the trial is over.

(03-21-2019 03:41 PM)CrimsonPhantom Wrote:  

Quote:ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.- Four of the five people who were arrested after a raid of a Taos County compound could face the death penalty if they are convicted of federal charges.

Jany Leveille, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj, and Lucas Morton face were in court Thursday facing new federal terrorism and kidnapping charges. They also face federal gun charges.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, who is the father of Abdul-ghani Wahhaj, the Georgia boy who prosecutors say was kidnapped and was found dead at the compound, will not face the death penalty.

While the death penalty is on the table, prosecutors have not decided whether they will seek it. They said it's an option that would have to be signed off by the U.S. Attorney General.

All five suspects pleaded not guilty.

The suspects' defense attorneys say their clients are being targeted because they are Muslim.

"This is about religious freedom, the right to bear arms and core American values. We all stand behind our clients 100 percent. They're not terrorists, they're innocent," said Carey Bhalla, defense attorney for Hujrah Wahhaj.

A trial is not expected to start until 2020.

Link

Quote:A lot of smiles today from the #TaosCompound Five, however their defense attorneys say they’re not happy the government is trying to kill them. Four of the Five face the death penalty if found guilty.

Imagine that.

(03-21-2019 03:44 PM)SuperFlyBCat Wrote:  Are they out on bail?

You don't typically get bail on federal terrorism charges this significant.

Quote:A U.S. District Court judge in Albuquerque has ordered one of the five people arrested last year at the makeshift compound near the Colorado border in Taos County to be hospitalized after finding her mentally unfit to stand trial.

Following a hearing held on Oct. 15, Chief U.S. District Court Judge William Johnson found that Jany Leveille suffers from a "mental disease or defect" rendering her unable to understand the charges she faces, court proceedings related to her charges and incapable of assisting in her own defense.

Leveille, who is an undocumented immigrant from Haiti, will initially be hospitalized for a maximum period of four months. If doctors determine she could eventually become competent to stand trial, they will continue to work with her for an "additional reasonable period of time" and may even require her to consume medication to help her attain competency.

Leveille and her four co-defendants - Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj and Lucas Morton - were first taken into custody by the Taos County Sheriff's Office at the compound near Amalia on Aug. 3, 2018. The raid was conducted to search for Siraj Ibn Wahhaj's missing 3-year-old son, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj, who was reported missing by his mother in Georgia in 2017. But while officers rescued 11 other children found living at the squalid dwelling, they found the toddler's remains buried in a makeshift tunnel dug below the property during another search three days later.

Prosecutors have alleged that the child had suffered from a form of epilepsy, but that Leveille and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj believed he was possessed by evil spirits. Authorities say they denied the child medication he had been prescribed by a doctor and instead subjected him to religious rituals comparable to exorcisms. It is alleged that the Wahhaj toddler died during one of the rituals on Christmas Eve 2017, shortly after the group arrived at the compound.

An electronic journal recovered from the compound, allegedly written by Leveille, suggested that she saw herself as a religious prophet for the group and believed that the deceased toddler would be resurrected to instruct them on the government institutions they were to attack and destroy.

The sheriff's office and members of the FBI also recovered numerous firearms, a stockpile of ammunition, a shooting range and other evidence to suggest the adults were preparing to carry out terrorist attacks on government institutions.

Leveille and the four other adults were initially charged with child abuse in Taos County, but those cases were eventually dropped after prosecutors missed a deadline to hold preliminary hearings and federal charges were filed in U.S. District Court.

The five defendants are tentatively scheduled for trial in district court on April 13, 2020.

Link

Thank you for the update, CP.

To me, this is one of the most significant, yet under-reported (by the media) and under-appreciated (by the public), stories of our time. To me, the life and death of Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj is filled with important symbolism about “where we are” as a nation right now.

Canada hosts jihadi Sirhaj Wahhaj (the above ******'s daddy) and others at largest Muslim conference in North America

Just saw on local CBS, that the gal who said she could talk Jesus was having a competency hearing to stand trial.

New Mexico compound leader pleads guilty in suspected terrorism case

Quote:TAOS, N.M. (KRQE) – A woman at the center of the 2018 Taos County compound case is expected to spend more than a decade in federal prison amid accusations she led adults and children in an effort to prepare for violent attacks in the U.S. Jany Leveille, 40, pleaded guilty Friday to two charges in a case that unfolded after authorities found the remains of a three-year-old boy and eleven malnourished children amid a cache of weapons and ammunition.

Leveille did not plead to any terror charges. Instead, she pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S.” and “possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the U.S.” She and four other adults were living in a compound near Amalia, just south of the Colorado state line between December 2017 and August 2018. Federal investigators accused the group of training their children to carry out future attacks on schools, banks, a hospital and government buildings.

Described by federal prosecutors as a leader among the group, Leveille is the first suspect to take a plea in the case after years of court arguments surrounding her competency. Investigators say Leveille is a Haitian national who believed she was receiving messages and directions from God. In 2019, she was found incompetent to stand trial, a decision that was ultimately reversed in 2022.

Leveille’s attorney provided a brief statement about the plea Friday, calling the plea a difficult decision. Leveille has faced a pending case for nearly five years.

“Today, Ms. Leveille entered a guilty plea to two counts, both involving her possession of firearms as an immigrant whose immigration status had lapsed,” said Aric Elsenheimer, attorney for Jany Leveille. “This was a difficult decision for Ms. Leveille, but one that ends the litigation in her case. She looks forward to moving forward, preparing for the Sentencing Hearing, and reuniting with her family.”

According to the plea agreement, Leveille admits she and the four other suspects gathered eleven guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in Georgia around December 2017. The group eventually traveled to New Mexico with the weapons and ammo in Leveille’s car.

Once in New Mexico, Leveille admits she and the suspects “built and maintained a compound” made of a trailer, wood, a plastic tarp and a tire wall. The compound also “included a firing range and tactical training ground,” according to the plea agreement.

The filing also outlines the training of children on that firing range. Leveille admits in the plea agreement that “Lucas Morton and Siraj Ibn Wahhaj trained persons, including [her] minor children, in firearms use and tactical maneuvers,” something that happened “with [her] knowledge and permission.” Part of the agreement also includes an acknowledgement that Leveille was knowing in the U.S. illegally with an expired visa, and that she was not allowed to possess guns or ammo.

In exchange for the plea, prosecutors dropped five charges against Leveille, which alleged conspiracy related to terrorism, murder and kidnapping, also actual kidnapping. While she has signed off on the agreement, Leveille has yet to be sentenced. Prosecutors are seeking a sentence of between 12 to 15 years in prison. As of February 10th, no sentencing date has been set.

The four other defendants in the case are Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj and Lucas Morton. So far, the cases against each of those defendants remain pending.

Father and other family members are convicted in New Mexico kidnapping and terrorism case

Quote:ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Jurors on Tuesday convicted a father of terrorism charges in a case that stemmed from the search for a 3-year-old boy who went missing from Georgia and was found dead hundreds of miles away at a squalid compound in northern New Mexico in 2018.

Prosecutors told jurors that the boy’s father, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, and other members of his family had fled with the toddler to a remote stretch of the high desert so they could engage in firearms and tactical training to prepare for attacks against the government. It was all tied to an apparent belief that the boy would be resurrected as Jesus Christ and provide instructions.

Jurors reached their decision after deliberating for two-and-a-half days.

In a case that took years to get to trial, jurors heard weeks of testimony from children who had lived with their parents at the compound, other family members, firearms experts, doctors and forensic technicians. The defendants, who are Muslim, argued that federal authorities targeted them because of their religion.

Wahhaj’s brother-in-law also was convicted of terrorism charges, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, and kidnapping that resulted in the boy’s death. Wahhaj’s sisters were convicted on the kidnapping charges.

The badly decomposed remains of the boy were eventually found in an underground tunnel at the compound on the outskirts of Amalia near the Colorado state line.

An exact cause of death was never determined amid accusations that the boy, who lived with severe developmental disabilities and frequent seizures, had been deprived of crucial medication.

Prosecutor George Kraehe said during closing arguments last Thursday that the boy — Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj — was at the heart of the case and he urged everyone in the courtroom to remember the toddler’s name. He repeated it while turning to look at the defendants as the boy’s mother, Hakima Ramzi rushed from the courtroom in tears.

Prosecutors recounted the hurried journey the four defendants and their children took from Georgia to Alabama and eventually New Mexico. They left nearly everything behind, including other family members who sent numerous texts, emails and social media messages pleading with them to bring the boy home.

“They were running and hiding because they knew what they had done was wrong,” Kraehe told jurors.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj’s partner — Jany Leveille, a Haitian national — was initially charged with kidnapping and terrorism-related charges, but instead reached a plea agreement on weapons charges. She did not appear at the trial.

Prosecutors argued Leveille was charting the group’s course based on messages that she received from God, detailed in passages in a journal.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj represented himself in court. He told jurors that the federal government was presenting a false narrative and that they needed to consider only the facts as they deliberated his fate and that of his two sisters and his brother-in-law.

“The government portrayed me to look like a monster,” he said, explaining that his family was close-knit and they were trying to protect his son from evil spirits. He said they used a ritual known as ruqyah in which passages from the Quran are recited.

He told jurors it was one thing to be able to defend one’s self from a physical attack, but that a spiritual attack — which he believed was happening to his son — required prayer.

Defense attorneys for Hujrah and Subhanah Wahhaj told jurors that they played no role in the boy’s death and were only at the compound to care for their own children as they endured inhospitable conditions that included cold temperatures and harsh winds. They talked about how one of the women searched the internet to find information on trapping squirrels and birds, so the family could eat more.

Prosecutors argued that the women were part of what they described as a “sick end-of-times scheme” that evolved after the boy’s death, and that they had “an avalanche of evidence” against all four defendants.

The defendants adopted what prosecutors called “a number of unique beliefs that set them on a dangerous path.”

A sentencing date has yet to be scheduled.

According to prosecutors, the charges related to kidnapping resulting in death carry a mandatory life sentence. The charges of providing support in preparation for terrorist attacks on U.S. government officials and employees are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, while the charge of conspiracy to kill a government officer or employee carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The secret life and crimes of terrorist ‘prophet’ apprehended in Taos: Docs.

Quote:In a case that has captured national attention, Jany Leveille finds herself at the center of a legal storm after her involvement in a terrorist plot in New Mexico came to light. Leveille, a key figure in a group accused of establishing a training camp for terrorist activities in Taos County, has entered a guilty plea for her actions. According to KRQE News 13, federal authorities had initially agreed to a sentence cap of 17 years for Leveille despite the gravity of her offenses, which could have merited a life sentence under different circumstances.

The origins of this case can be traced back to 2018 when federal agents raided a secluded encampment in Taos County. The raid unveiled a shocking scene: a makeshift training ground where children were reportedly being prepared to launch attacks on governmental institutions and FBI agents. The authorities detained five adults, including Leveille, and discovered 11 children in a state of malnutrition. Leveille, a Haitian national, was purportedly the ideological and spiritual mentor of this group.

Investigations into the compound revealed a highly fortified setup, complete with a 100-foot escape tunnel, weapons caches, and a tactical training area designed to mimic real-life combat scenarios. Federal documents suggest that Leveille wielded significant influence over the group, particularly over Sirraj Wahhaj, whom she allegedly persuaded to marry her, thus securing her legal status in the United States.

Leveille’s role within the group extended beyond her marital manipulations. She was believed to have proclaimed herself a prophet, claiming to receive divine instructions. Her leadership included authoring a manuscript that outlined the group’s ideological beliefs and preparations for an impending conflict against those they deemed non-believers.

One of the most harrowing allegations against Leveille involves the kidnapping of Wahhaj’s son from Georgia. The child was reportedly brought to the compound, subjected to rituals purported to be exorcisms, and denied necessary medical treatment, leading to his tragic death in 2017. Federal authorities assert that Leveille attempted to conceal the child’s death, persuading her followers that he would be resurrected.

Leveille’s guilty plea in August to charges of illegal firearm possession and providing support to terrorists marked a significant development in the case. These charges, as noted by federal investigators, are severe enough to justify a life sentence in other contexts.

As Leveille awaits her sentencing, which is anticipated to fall between 12 and 17 years, the implications of her actions continue to reverberate through the community and the nation. Following the completion of her sentence, deportation is expected, marking the end of a chilling chapter in New Mexico’s history that has highlighted the persistent threats of domestic terrorism and the complexities of combating ideological extremism within the United States.

Four members convicted in Taos compound case sentenced to life; a fifth gets 15 years in prison

Quote:The spiritual and ideological leader of a group of would-be terrorists who abducted a special needs boy and allowed him to die at a Taos-area compound in the winter of 2017 was suffering from “acute schizophrenia,” according to testimony at her federal sentencing hearing Wednesday.

In expressing her remorse and apologizing to her victims and the four co-defendants who had believed in her, Jany Leveille, 41, received a 15-year prison sentence based upon a plea agreement with the government. After completing her sentence, Leveille, a Haitian national in the country illegally, is expected to be deported.

Four others convicted in the conspiracy were sentenced to life in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge William Johnson. The four, who had trained with weapons for a coming “war” and “the cleansing of society’s corrupt institutions,” rejected the government’s plea offer after their arrest in 2018, according to court records.

All five were alleged to have removed the 3-year-old son of one of the defendants, Siraj Wahhaj, from his mother in Georgia. With their other children, the group fled to New Mexico.

After arriving in late 2017, they set up a heavily fortified, militarized compound in Costilla Meadows, about a mile from the Colorado border. The boy was denied his anti-seizure medication and ultimately died. Before his death, prosecutors said, he was subjected to hours of painful and distressing exorcism rituals on a daily basis, and Leveille convinced the others to wait for his resurrection on Easter Day.

Meanwhile, the group was hiding out and preparing to kill law enforcement, particularly the FBI, if agents came to arrest them.

On Aug. 3, 2018, Leveille interceded with Wahhaj when law enforcement officers, including those with the Taos County Sheriff’s Office, came to check on the welfare of the children living there. Wahhaj had armed himself with multiple firearms and was prepared to engage in a shootout, according to federal prosecutors. But no violence occurred.

Officers that day removed 11 children from the compound. Eventually, the badly decomposed remains of the boy were discovered in an underground tunnel on the grounds.

Wahhaj, who represented himself in court, was Leveille’s partner. They, along with his two sisters and brother-in-law, Lucas Morton, contended they were being targeted as defendants in the case because of their Muslim religion.

“The facts are horrendous,” Johnson said during the sentencing hearing, but he said Leveille’s acceptance of responsibility and apology are “significant.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office asked for a 17-year sentence as set out in the plea agreement, while her lawyer, Aric Elsenheimer pushed for 12 years.

Leveille, according to Elsenheimer, underwent a radical transformation after physicians at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons diagnosed her mental illness while she was awaiting trial and put her on medication to treat her to “competency.”

In a short statement, Leveille told the judge, “My heart hurts for all the victims. I take full responsibility. I was not in my right mind.”

“She understood that, because of her schizophrenia, the voices she was hearing were not real,” Elsenheimer said. “At its root, this case is about her schizophrenia.” If not for that, he said, “We wouldn’t be here.”

The others, whom she referred to as family, went along with her claim that the 3-year-old Abdul Ghani was actually her child stolen from her womb, that she was Mary, the mother of Jesus, and that she was receiving messages from Allah, or his messengers.

Earlier on Wednesday, Wahhaj, his sisters Hujrah Wahhaj and Subhanah Wahhaj, and Subhanah’s husband, Lucas Morton, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

On Oct. 17, 2023, after a three-week trial, a federal jury convicted Siraj Wahhaj and Morton of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to murder an officer or employee of the United States, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Hujrah Wahhaj, Subhanah Wahhaj and Morton were additionally convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping resulting in death and kidnapping resulting in death.

Leveille pleaded guilty to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and being in possession of a firearm while unlawfully in the United States on Aug. 8, 2023.

U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Alexander Uballez said after the sentencing, “The horrifying events of 2017 and 2018 played out in graphic detail during this trial: from radical ideologies to violent extremist beliefs, the banality of everyday life centered around the corpse of a dead child within a fortified compound in rural New Mexico.”

But, he added, “The heart of this case was the senseless death of a 3-year-old.”