WEST HAVEN, CT — A 29-year-old West Haven man who tried to travel overseas to fight for ISIS was sentenced Monday, Sept. 28, in federal court in New Haven to 92 months in prison, to be followed by supervised release for the rest of his life, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut announced.
U.S. District Judge Victor A. Bolden imposed the sentence, seven years and eight months, on the charge the man admitted on Nov. 30, 2022, a conspiracy to give material support to a foreign terrorist organization. The charge carried a maximum of 20 years, federal officials said at the time of the plea. He has been held since his arrest in December 2019.
A Planned Trip to Syria
Starting around September 2018, the man, a U.S. citizen, said he wanted to go to Syria to fight for the Islamic State, according to the federal announcement as reported by Patch. Prosecutors said he swore loyalty to ISIS and to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, then its leader, in conversations online and in person, and that after al-Baghdadi's death in October 2019 he pledged himself to the group's new leader. He also ran a Discord server supporting ISIS, where he shared hundreds of propaganda memes and videos, officials said.
On Dec. 14, 2019, he handed $500 to someone he took for an ISIS facilitator, expecting that person to get him out of the United States to Turkey and connect him with someone to guide him into Syria, prosecutors said. The next day he went to Stonington, planning to board a boat and start the journey, and was arrested there.
A Plan Found in His Cell
The man had numerous disciplinary infractions while detained, federal officials said. When officers searched his cell in August 2025, they found a handwritten plan for an uprising at the detention facility, with drawings of the housing unit, directions for getting into secured areas, and tactics for taking on the Correctional Emergency Response Team, according to the announcement.