Second of 3 Mainers Charged in Separate Terrorist Plots Pleads Guilty.
Posted by Ed Folsom, January 12, 2024.
This time last year, there were 3 people from Maine facing trial on terrorism charges arising from three independent schemes in three different locations. Today, only one is still pending trial. The other two have pled guilty.
Trevor Bickford, of Wells, Maine, has pled guilty to terrorism charges in his attempt to kill three New York City police officers on New Year’s Eve 2022. Bickford attacked the officers with a machete-style knife called a kukri, as an act of jihad. In his backpack, police found a book with a highlighted passage reading, “Fight in the Name of Allah and in the Cause of Allah. Fight against those who do not believe in Allah. Wage a holy war.”
Bickford will be sentenced at a later date.
In November of 2023, Xavier Pelkey, of Waterville, Maine, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Pelkey plotted to attack a Shia Muslim mosque in Chicago, along with 2 juveniles, on behalf of the Sunni Muslim terrorist movement, ISIS.
Now, only Francis Carroll, formerly of Kennebunkport, Maine, awaits trial on terrorism charges. Carroll was arrested on domestic terrorism and other charges in December of 2022, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was part of a group of Antifa and anarchist-affiliated leftists who allegedly attacked police at the site of a planned police training facility that the group had been occupying. Carroll was released on bail and was arrested again in January of 2023 on domestic terrorism and other charges, after participating in riots related to that same occupation. Carroll remains in custody, awaiting trial on the charges.
Maine is a state with fewer than 1.4 million residents. Isn’t it strange that three people who grew up here faced terrorism charges simultaneously in three independent terrorist plots?
Related Posts:
https://edfolsomlaw.com/2023/01/three-maine-men-face-terrorism-charges-2-jihadists1-antifa/
https://edfolsomlaw.com/2023/11/one-jihadist-mainer-sentenced-to-15-yrs-second-awaits-trial-in-ny/