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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

N.C. Man Pleads Guilty |to Trying to Support ISIS

CN) - A North Carolina man who tried to join the Islamic State extremist group pleaded guilty Thursday to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Donald Ray Morgan, of Rowan County, N.C., was arrested August 2, 2014, at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after a May indictment on a charge of being a felon who illegally possessed a fireman.

Federal prosecutors said that beginning in January 2014, Morgan repeatedly tried to offer support and resources to al-Qa'ida in Iraq -- also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham -- and on at least one occasion, attempted to travel to Syria to join the group.

Prosecutors said at the same time, Morgan also took to Twitter and Facebook to express his support for the group and its campaign of violence.

"Today's plea is sad reminder that those who wish to aid foreign terrorist organizations can come from any community and from any background," said Ripley Rand, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina, in a written statement.

Morgan faces up to 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the terrorism-related charge, and an additional 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the firearm charge.

He is scheduled to be sentenced on February 18, 2015.

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