Massacre-rifles supplier gets 20 years

RIVERSIDE, Calif. — The man who bought two rifles used to kill 14 people in a 2015 attack in San Bernardino was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison.

Enrique Marquez Jr. supplied the weapons that Syed Rizwan Farook and Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, used on Dec. 2, 2015, to open fire on a meeting and holiday gathering of San Bernardino County employees who worked with Farook. Minutes later, a post on a Facebook page associated with Malik pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State terror group. The couple fled and died later that day in a gunbattle with authorities.

Marquez, 28, showed no emotion during the federal court hearing as relatives of the victims asked the judge to give him a lengthy sentence. He pleaded guilty in 2017 to conspiring with Farook to provide material support to terrorists and making false statements regarding the rifles he had purchased in his name using Farook’s money.

Prosecutors sought a 25-year sentence for Marquez, arguing he should be held responsible for giving semi-automatic weapons and explosives to Farook though he knew Farook was inspired by violent extremists and had plotted with him years earlier to kill large numbers of people.

The defense had asked for a five-year term, according to court filings. Defense attorney John Aquilina said his client had been manipulated by Farook since he was 13, when they met as neighbors.

In determining the sentence, U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal said he took into account that Marquez had called 911 and cooperated with authorities.

(AP/Damian Dovarganes) Standing near portraits of the 14 victims of the 2015 terror attack in San Bernardino, Calif., Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Grigg talks Friday outside court in Riverside about the sentencing of the man who supplied weapons to the killers.