Terror plot nets 6 years
A Katy man who planned to launch a domestic terrorism attack last year by robbing an armored car before detonating an explosion, killing a state trooper and spraying a mosque with gunfire at prayer time was sentenced on Friday to more than six years in federal prison.
Robert James Talbot Jr. was arrested outside a Houston storage locker in March 2014 on the morning he planned to launch his nationwide “American Insurgent Movement.”
Federal prosecutors asked for 20 years, the statutory maximum sentence, saying they wanted to protect the community from someone who poses “extreme” danger to the public and law enforcement. The 39-year-old’s lawyer, Windi Pastorini, contended that her client has admitted his crimes, apologized and has “diminished capacity” that requires mental health treatment.
FBI investigation
U.S. District Judge Ewing Werlein on Friday ordered Talbot to 6½ years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release. The jurist also ordered psychological evaluation and mental health treatment.
Talbot was the target of an eight-month undercover investigation dating back to 2013 by Houston’s FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force.
As federal agents monitored him on the Internet, they covertly inserted undercover operatives and civilian informants into Talbot’s life. One person posed as an oil platform worker who could acquire explosives, and another pretended to have contacts in the militia movement.
Online, Talbot espoused his desire to recruit likeminded individuals to blow up government buildings to “take back” power over the country, to rob banks for the money to purchase additional weapons and ammunition and to attack mosques when they were full of as many people as possible. Talbot’s wish to kill law enforcement officers was an attempt to settle a personal score: He wanted to assassinate the Texas state trooper who had arrested him for intoxicated driving in early 2014 and set a trap for more officers.
He created a Facebook page aimed at recruiting people for “a pre-Constitutionalist community that offers those who seek true patriotism and are looking for absolute freedom by doing the will of God.”
On the day he was handcuffed last year, Talbot met with individuals he believed were joining the American Insurgent Movement. At the gathering and armed with a Glock 31 handgun, he provided instructions for robbing an armored car and detailed how to blow up the vehicle.
‘No other option’
Talbot also took two explosive devices from the storage facility and placed them in his backpack, which also had a fully loaded 15-round magazine.
He also read a statement to the group: “We must rebel. There is no other option. Blood and bullets are the only two things that will change this world, short of divine action.”
Talbot was arrested by the Houston FBI special weapons and tactics team shortly thereafter.
He was indicted the next month. Without a plea agreement, Talbot admitted guilt in October 2014 to attempted interference with commerce by robbery and solicitation to commit a crime of violence.
The case was prosecuted by Southern District of Texas assistant U.S. attorneys Carolyn Ferko and Jim McAlister.