TOPEKA – A 29-year-old Topeka man is waiting to be sentenced for helping a would-be jihadist’s unsuccessful plot to bomb an Army post in northeast Kansas.
U.S. District Judge Daniel Crabtree was having a sentencing hearing Thursday for Alexander Blair. Court documents say Blair loaned $100 to another man who tried to plant what they thought was an explosive device outside Fort Riley in support of the Islamic State group.
Blair’s attorney sought a sentence of five years’ probation. Prosecutors pushed for the maximum five-year prison term.
Blair’s attorney said Blair has an unusual genetic condition that made it easy for him to be manipulated by 21-year-old John Booker Jr. of Topeka.
Booker pleaded guilty in February to two felonies under an agreement calling for him to serve 30 years in prison.
