A plea hearing for alleged Islamic State sympathizer Jaelyn Young is scheduled today in federal court in Aberdeen.
Court documents show that Young is scheduled to change her plea to the first count in a three-count indictment against her.
Young previously pleaded not guilty to the charge, which is conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization. That crime carries a 20-year prison sentence, $250,000 fine and lifetime probation.
The hearing is scheduled to take place at 4:30 p.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock.
Young and Starkville native Muhammad Dakhlalla, her fiance, were arrested in August while attempting to board a Golden Triangle Regional Airport flight. Their destination was Europe, authorities said.
The duo allegedly planned to travel to Turkey, cross the border into Syria and join IS fighters, according to authorities.
Dakhlalla pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization earlier this month. He is awaiting sentencing.
A criminal complaint shows FBI agents began tracking both Dakhlalla’s and Young’s social media accounts last summer. At least one federal investigator posed online as a middleman for IS while communicating with the duo.
Young, who is from Vicksburg, allegedly said she “would love to help with giving medical aid to the injury (sic)” once within Syria, while the FBI complaint also states Dakhlalla offered his services with computers, education and media and said, “I am willing to fight. I want to be taught what it really means to have that heart in battle!”
The complaint states Young praised the 2015 attacks on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Both confessed to attempting to travel abroad and join IS after their arrest, the complaint states.
Documents released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office after Dakhlalla’s plea states Young converted to Islam last year after the couple began dating in 2014. She began to watch pro-IS videos and “seemed to be developing hatred for people she deemed immoral,” it states.
The pair bought plane tickets to Istanbul, Turkey, “left behind incriminating farewell letters that explained they would never be back, with Young acknowledging her role as the planner of the expedition and that Dakhlalla was going as her companion, of his own free will,” the complaint states.
Both are former Mississippi State University students.
Dakhlalla’s father leads the mosque in Starkville.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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