Four face potential life sentences after convictions in federal terrorism, kidnapping trial

Oct. 17—A dramatic terrorism and kidnapping trial ended Tuesday when jurors convicted four people arrested at a squalid compound north of Taos in 2018 on a majority of charges they faced.

All four face up to life in prison for their roles in abducting a 3-year-old boy later found dead at the compound near the Colorado border.

The jury of seven men and five women acquitted the two female defendants each on a pair of terrorism charges.

However, jurors convicted both women — Hujrah Wahhaj, 42, and her sister Subhanah Wahhaj, 30, along with Subhanah's husband, Lucas Morton, 45 — of kidnapping resulting in death and conspiracy to commit kidnapping.

In a separate finding, jurors found that the the kidnapping resulted in the death of the 3-year-old boy, Abdul Ghani Wahhaj. Kidnapping resulting in death carries a mandatory life sentence, prosecutors said.

In addition, Morton and his brother-in-law, Siraj Ibn Wahhaj, 45, each were found guilty of three terrorism-related charges. The most serious of those convictions is conspiracy to murder an officer or employee of the United States, which is punishable by up to life in prison.

Both men also were convicted of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and providing material support to terrorists.

All four remained subdued and showed little emotion as a court officer read the verdicts. The jury deliberated two and a half days before the verdicts were announced, concluding a three-week trial in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. Chief U.S. District Judge William P. Johnson presided.

New Mexico attracted national attention in August 2018 when FBI agents and Taos County Sheriff's deputies raided a ramshackle compound near the Colorado border searching for the 3-year-old boy reported missing in December 2017 by his mother in Georgia. The boy's decomposed remains were found in a 100-foot tunnel at the compound.

"The FBI takes its mission of protecting the American public seriously," FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Amy Kaskel said after the jury verdict. She said the investigation into the group's activities "highlighted their interest in the preparation for and desire to conduct attacks in the homeland against innocent people. This verdict shows that those who participate in that type of activity will be held accountable for their actions."

U.S. Attorney for New Mexico Alexander Uballez thanked the numerous law enforcement agencies involved in the case, and declined to say whether the group had ties to terrorist organizations in the U.S. or outside the country.

Officers found five adults and 11 malnourished children at the compound. They also found 11 firearms and 500 to 600 rounds of ammunition at the site, witnesses testified.

The four defendants were indicted by a federal grand jury in March 2019 on charges of providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists.

Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office told jurors the group abducted the boy, Abdul Ghani Wahhaj, and transported him from Georgia to New Mexico in December 2017.

The case was elevated from a custody dispute to a federal kidnapping case when the group transported Abdul Ghani across state lines, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Brawley told jurors Thursday in closing arguments.

The boy's father, Siraj Ibn Wahaj, took the boy from an Atlanta motel room while the boy's mother was taking a shower, the mother testified.

Abdul Ghani suffered from severe developmental disabilities as a result of complications of his birth and required daily medications to control his seizures, witnesses testified.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj and his sister Hujrah Wahhaj confronted the boy's mother in 2017, accusing her of practicing "black magic" and arguing that the boy required "raqyah," a type of exorcism or spiritual medicine, to rid the boy of evil spirits, witnesses testified.

Prosecutors alleged that Abdul Ghani died in New Mexico on Dec. 24, 2017, after Siraj Ibn Wahhaj subjected his son to hours of rigorous exorcism rituals.

Prosecutors also told jurors that the group believed the boy would be resurrected as "Isa," a messiah, who would return around Easter 2018 and instruct followers how to rid the world of "corrupt institutions," including military, law enforcement and financial institutions.

A military weapons expert testified that the videos depicted "mission preparation" training by men and boys at the compound. However, none of the evidence seized identified any specific individuals or agencies as targets, the expert testified.

Attorneys for the defendants told jurors that the terrorism charges were based on "fantasies" that could not have occurred.

Prosecutors responded that the government didn't need to prove that the predictions were possible, only that the beliefs motivated the actions of the defendants.

Predictions of Abdul Ghani's resurrection were listed in a journal written by Jany Leveille, who lived at the compound and was identified by some witnesses as a leader of the group.

Laveille, a 40-year-old Haitian national, pleaded guilty in February to a federal firearms charge and a conspiracy charge and faces up to 15 years in prison. Her sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

Leveille was not present at the trial and was not called as a witness. Uballez said he couldn't say whether she helped in the prosecution after her guilty plea this year.