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The Latest: Jurors deliberating in Kansas bomb plot case

Original Publication Date April 17, 2018 - 9:06 AM

WICHITA, Kan. - The Latest on the trial of three men accused of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants (all times local):

3 p.m.

The case of three militia members accused of plotting to bomb an apartment complex housing Somalis in Kansas is now in the hands of the jury.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights in the plot targeting Muslims in Garden City. Wright is also charged with lying to the FBI.

Prosecutors in their closing arguments portrayed the militia member who alerted authorities as a hero who saved countless lives.

Defence attorneys at their turn tried to cast doubt on his credibility as a paid informant.

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12:45 p.m.

Defence attorneys took aim during closing arguments at the paid informant who secretly recorded hundreds of hours of interviews with three militia members accused of plotting to bomb an apartment complex housing Somalis in Kansas.

Attorney Melody Brannon told jurors that the men's conversations were all bravado, saying if informant Dan Day had not shown up, nothing would have happened. Day was paid more than $32,000 during the investigation. She says the government was investigating to get a conviction, not the truth.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights in the plot targeting Muslims in Garden City. Wright is also charged with lying to the FBI.

Attorney Jim Pratt acknowledged that his client, Stein, did compare Somalis to an infestation of cockroaches and referred to himself as the Orkin man. But he says it was just words, not action.

Pratt said it is not morally right to hold such hate, but it is not legally wrong, adding "we all have the right to hate."

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11 a.m.

A prosecutor is crediting a courageous militia member with saving the lives of innocent Somali immigrants targeted in a plot to bomb a mosque and apartment complex in Kansas.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Mattivi told jurors during closing arguments that informant Dan Day is the hero at the heart of the case. He says none of the other militia people who learned of the plot but refused to join it had the guts to inform authorities. Day risked his life to record months of conversations that allowed jurors to hear for themselves the plans for the attack.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights in the plot targeting Muslims in Garden City. Wright is also charged with lying to the FBI.

Mattivi says the defendants planned to place bombs around the apartment complex, which would have been stuffed with razorblades, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

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7:15 a.m.

Attorneys are set to make their closing arguments to jurors deciding the fate of three men accused of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali immigrants in Kansas.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen are charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights in the plot targeting Muslims in Garden City. Wright is also charged with lying to the FBI.

The jury will receive their final instructions and hear arguments Tuesday, before getting the case for deliberation.

The government's case featured months of profanity-laced recordings. Prosecutors say the men formed a splinter group of the Kansas Security Force militia.

Defence attorneys have said the FBI set the men up and that any talk about violence wasn't serious.

News from © The Associated Press, 2018
The Associated Press

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