13 years in prison for man trying to help ISIS
A north suburban man was sentenced Friday to 13 1/ 2 years in federal prison for attempting to aid the Islamic State terrorist group by providing cellphones to an undercover FBI agent to be used as detonators for bombs.
Edward Schimenti and his friend Joseph Jones were convicted in 2019 of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. Last month, Jones was sentenced to 12 years behind bars.
Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Andrea Wood for a 20-year sentence for Schimenti, saying he’d shown absolutely no remorse for his crime and, if given the chance, would likely attempt to support radical Islamic causes in the future.
In a court filing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas wrote that Schimenti was the more violent of the two defendants, at one point expressing to an undercover informant a desire to attack soldiers at the Naval Station Great Lakes near North Chicago.
Meanwhile, Schimenti’s attorneys, Stephen Hall and Joshua Adams, argued for a five-year prison term, writing in a court filing last week that the FBI repeatedly had pushed Schimenti into participating in the plot, targeting him first online and later at his gym, home and work.
Before the sentence was handed down, Schimenti, 39, of Zion, told the judge in a lengthy statement that while he did “say and post off-color ideas” and could have made better decisions, he was no terrorist.
“I’m just a big teddy bear,” Schimenti said in a deep, measured tone. “I have a heart. I have feelings. I have emotions.”
The case against Schimenti and Jones marked the only time so far Islamic State-related charges have gone to trial in Chicago, instead of ending with a guilty plea. The trial featured days of testimony about the group’s brutal tactics — including torture and beheadings — as well as its notorious propaganda campaigns aimed at impressionable Americans.
Jurors viewed one propaganda video found on Schimenti’s computer showing terrorists clad in all black standing behind six captured Kurdish fighters whispering prayers while on their knees. Prosecutors stopped the video as the terrorist narrating it in English held a large knife up to the throat of one of the captives. The charges did not allege Schimenti or Jones participated in any violence.
The investigation began in September 2015 when an undercover agent posing as a motorist arrested in a traffic-related incident approached Jones at the Zion Police Department, where Jones was being interviewed about the recent slaying of a friend.
That agent introduced Jones and Schimenti to others posing as devotees of ISIS, including an informant they knew as Mohammed, who told them he was going to the Middle East to join the Islamic State’s ranks, according to prosecutors.
In February 2017, Schimenti took the informant to a gym in Zion to train for the battlefield.
Remarking on his own weight, Schimenti said on an undercover recording that what mattered most in jihad was “hand-to-hand” combat skills, not physical fitness.
“Man, you know I’m all big, fat,” Schimenti said on the recording played for jurors. “But (God willing) the brothers will just have me be the one to cut the neck.”
Schimenti talked with the informant about future plans to attack Naval Station Great Lakes, a short distance from his home.