An upstate New York man has been sentenced to eight years in prison for plotting to kill Muslims with a mobile X-ray device, the U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday.
Eric Feight, 55, pleaded guilty last year to helping another man, self-proclaimed Ku Klux Klan member Glendon Scott Crawford, modify an industrial-grade radiation device, which the pair intended to use to deliver lethal doses of radiation to Muslims around the city of Albany, N.Y., authorities said, according to The Associated Press.
Feight, a control systems engineer, also helped Crawford build a remote control for the device so it could be activated from afar, reported ABC News. He was sentenced for providing material support to terrorists.
"Eric Feight aided Glendon Scott Crawford in altering a dispersal device to target unsuspecting Muslim Americans with lethal doses of radiation," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Carlin. "Feight and Crawford's abominable plot to harm innocent Americans was thwarted thanks to the tireless efforts of law enforcement."
Crawford, a Navy veteran with no criminal history, attempted to get financial support from the KKK for the plot, but a KKK official went to the FBI. Agents then posed as businessmen who were interested investing in the project. After months of extensive research and design, the agents helped Crawford and Feight test a device that would remotely activate the X-ray machine, which the FBI purchased. Agents arrested the men in 2013 prior to a scheduled meeting to test the final components of the weapon, and they have been in jail since.
Feight told U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe that Crawford initially told him that the weapon was to be used to sterilize medical waste, and claims that after meeting the undercover FBI agents he became too scared to back out of the plot.
Feight said he stalled the development of the remote control for six months and refused to integrate it directly to operate the X-ray machine, according to AP. He also said that he never thought the weapon would actually work, but Sharpe said it could have indeed worked and killed people as intended.
"You understood what it was you were doing," Sharpe said. "It's bizarre somebody with your background, your intelligence and your experience would be listening to Crawford's nonsense."
Crawford faces up to 25 years in prison and is set to be sentenced in March.
"The sentence today highlights both the dangers we face when hatred and bigotry beget domestic terrorism and violent extremism, and our commitment to holding those who commit such crimes accountable," said U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian of the Northern District of New York. "No American - of any background - should have to live in fear of this kind of attack. This case illustrates the importance of vigilance by community members and an immediate, comprehensive investigation by our Albany FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which thwarted the diabolical plan Feight supported. We must continue to counter messages of hate by empowering communities and emphasizing the inclusion on which our nation was founded, with local, state and federal law enforcement ready to stop any who refuse to heed that call."
