Three members of the Wolverine Watchmen were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Thursday in connection with a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.
Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were not charged with the kidnapping conspiracy, but were charged with providing material support to a terrorist act and training with the group’s leader, Adam Fox.
On Thursday, Jackson County Circuit Judge Thomas Wilson sentenced Musico to a minimum of 12 years, Morrison to 10 years and Bellar to seven years. They will not be eligible for parole until they complete their sentence.
Wilson handed down the sentences after playing a video statement from Whitmer, who called on the lawyer to impose a sentence that matched the “seriousness” of the crime.
“The plot to kidnap and kill the sitting governor of Michigan is a threat to democracy itself,” Whitmer, a Democrat, said in the recording.
The trio were members of the far-right group Wolverine Watchmen and were involved with Fox, who, along with Barry Croft Jr., began a plot to kidnap Whitmer from his vacation home in order to start a civil war known as the boogaloo.
The verdict came before the governor was hurt, in part by informants who worked with the FBI during the operation. A total of 14 people were arrested for their roles in the conspiracy.
Prosecutors accused the three men of setting up a “terrorist training camp” in Michigan and conducting three training sessions with Fox before the plot to start the Civil War.
Defense attorneys plan to appeal the conviction — and they claim Fox walked away from him before planning the robbery.
Bellar, his attorney said, had moved to South Carolina about a month before the kidnapping plot took place.
In separate federal sentences, Fox and Croft will be sentenced to life in prison later this month.
With post wires
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