Jurors began deliberations Tuesday in a third trial connected to a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a spinoff of the main case that resulted in four convictions in federal court.
Prosecutors acknowledge that Joe Morrison, Pete Musico and Paul Bellar were not deeply involved by fall 2020 when anti-government extremists trained in northern Michigan and took a ride to observe Whitmer's vacation home and a bridge that could be blown up.
The three, however, are accused of providing assistance earlier that summer when a leader of the plot, Adam Fox, drilled with their paramilitary group, the Wolverine Watchmen, at a rural property in Jackson County where Morrison and Musico live.
鈥淵ou can't un-rob a bank. Once you commit a crime you can't undo it,鈥 state Assistant Attorney General Bill Rollstin said in final remarks Tuesday.
Morrison, 28, Musico, 44, and Bellar, 24, are charged with for a terrorist act and two other crimes. The jury didn't reach a verdict and will return Wednesday in Jackson, Michigan, 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of Detroit.
The trial in state court was a branch of the main case handled in federal court, where Fox and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of a kidnapping conspiracy. and
Authorities said the goal was to trigger a U.S. civil war, known to extremists as the 鈥渂oogaloo.鈥
鈥淚 don't care who you voted for,鈥 Rollstin told the jury. 鈥淏ut to target our governor would be an incredibly destabilizing event in our state. What they had planned would have rocked this nation.鈥
Whitmer, a Democrat running for reelection on Nov. 8, was never physically harmed. Undercover FBI agents and informants were inside the group for months. The scheme was broken up with 14 arrests in October 2020.
Defense lawyers conceded that Morrison, Musico and Bellar expressed violent, profane opinions about Whitmer, police and government. But they argued that free speech is not a crime. They also emphasized that the three were on the sideline when the kidnapping scheme shifted to northern Michigan.
Bellar鈥檚 attorney, Andrew Kirkpatrick, said the trio's connection to Fox was insignificant. He urged the jury to focus on the words 鈥渕aterial support鈥 in the main charge.
鈥淚f you鈥檙e building something, you gotta have materials to put something together. It鈥檚 not one time,鈥 Kirkpatrick said Monday. "It鈥檚 not maybe two times of being at the same training session together. It鈥檚 material.鈥
Morrison, who tested positive for COVID-19, and Musico were not in the courtroom. They watched final arguments by video.
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