A Starkville man pleaded guilty to one count of providing material support to a terrorist group Friday.
Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, 23, entered his plea in federal court after prosecutors agreed to drop other charges related to his arrest.
Dakhlalla faces up to 20 years in prison, $250,000 in fines and lifetime probation.
He remains in custody until his sentencing is scheduled.
Dakhlalla and his fiancee, Jaelyn Delshaun Young, were arrested in August after they allegedly attempted to leave the country via the Golden Triangle Regional Airport and join the Islamic State.
A criminal complaint shows FBI agents began tracking both Dakhlalla’s and Young’s social media accounts and interacting with the couple in last summer. At least one federal investigator posed online as a middleman for IS while communicating with the duo.
A memo released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office Friday states Young converted to Islam last year after she began dating Dakhlalla in 2014. She began to watch pro-IS videos and “seemed to be developing hatred for people she deemed immoral,” it states.
“For instance, she viewed and shared … a video of a man accused of being a homosexual being thrown from the roof of a building to his death below by (IS), which she supported,” the memo states.
Both “felt that the U.S. media was presenting a biased picture and refusing to acknowledge the good they thought (IS) was doing in some part of the world,” the memo states,” and viewed the group “as liberators of areas of Syria and Iraq.”
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 memo states.
Pre-trial motions were scheduled for May 9, and Young’s trial is still set for June 6.
The June trial date was scheduled allowing defense attorneys to prepare after a psychiatric evaluation was scheduled for Young. U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Aycock previously continued an October trial after defense counselors contested they had been unable to investigate and review an abundance of discovery materials presented by the state.
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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