DENVER (AP) — A 19-year-old woman who federal
authorities say intended to wage jihad despite their repeated attempts to stop
her pleaded guilty Wednesday to trying to help the Islamic State militant group
in Syria under a plea deal that requires her to help authorities who are
investigating others with the same intentions.
Shannon Conley, appearing in a striped jail jumpsuit
and a brown and black headscarf, entered her plea to one count of conspiracy to
provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
She said nothing in federal court other than
acknowledging that she understood the plea and its ramifications. She could
face up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.
The agreement says she must cooperate with the FBI
and other law enforcement agencies and provide information about people in
Colorado and elsewhere looking to help terrorists abroad. If she cooperates,
prosecutors promised to ask a judge to reduce her sentence.
After the hearing, Conley's public defender, Robert
Pepin, that she has been horrified by the atrocities committed by the Islamic
State group and offered her condolences to those who have been caught up in its
"slaughter and oppression."
"The fact that she was arrested may very well
have saved her life," he said of Conley, whom he referred to as Halima,
the name she adopted after her conversion to Islam.
Conley was arrested in April while trying to board a
flight at Denver International Airport on her way to Syria, authorities said.
The nurse's aide from Arvada previously told the
FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force that she hoped to use her nursing skills to
help the extremists, if she couldn't fight with them, according to court
documents.
In several meetings over eight months, FBI agents
repeatedly tried to discourage Conley, suggesting she explore humanitarian work
instead.
But Conley, whose traditional headscarf stood out in
her neighborhood, told them she planned to marry a suitor she met online whom
she believed was Tunisian and fought with the Islamic State group that controls
parts of Syria and Iraq. Read more:
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