Michael McWhorter, 33, and Joe Morris, 26, have been sentenced to 16 and 14 years in prison respectively for helping to attack the Dar al-Farooq Islamic Center while worshipers were attending morning prayers, according to court documents.
They were charged with firearms, arson, use of a destructive device and civil rights violations. Nobody was injured in the explosion.
In September, Emily Claire Hari, the militia leader formerly known as Michael Hari, who was convicted of masterminding the August 5 pipe bombing, was sentenced to 53 years in prison. McWhorter and Morris had cooperated in the case, so Assistant US Attorneys Allison Ethen and Timothy Rank asked for a sub-criminal sentence.
US District Judge Donovan Frank, sentencing Hari, said the bombing was a “premeditated act of domestic terrorism” against the Bloomington, Minnesota, place of worship, which serves as a community for Somali immigrants.
“The Government recognizes and appreciates the cooperation of McWhorter and Morris in this case, which contributed to Hari’s conviction,” U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said in a statement. “Today justice was done for their deeds.”
Five religious leaders of Muslim, Christian and Jewish faiths also made statements on the impact on victims and called for clemency, the Star Tribune reported.
In justifying his decision, Frank said he weighed the need to deter similar crimes, the report said. “Ultimately, lesser sentences “won’t encourage respect for the law,” Frank said, according to the Tribune.
Minnesota has the largest Somali community in the country, according to the US Census Bureau.
Prosecutors allege that Hari recruited the two for a terrorist militia called “The White Rabbits” and later drove a rented pickup truck more than 500 miles to the mosque.
Morris is said to have smashed a window of the Islamic Center with a sledgehammer early in the morning of August 5 while the faithful were gathering for morning prayers and threw a container of diesel and petrol into the imam’s office.
McWhorter lit the fuse of a pipe bomb Hari had made and threw it into the office, igniting the fuel. The two returned to the vehicle where Hari was waiting and drove away, according to US prosecutors.
FBI agents arrested Hari, McWhorter and Morris, all of Clarence, Illinois, in March 2018.
All three were charged the following June. McWhorter and Morris pleaded guilty to their role in January 2019.
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