BANGOR, Maine — Xavier Pelkey, the Waterville man who pleaded guilty to plotting an ISIS-inspired attack against a mosque in Chicago, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Monday.
U.S. District Court Judge Lance Walker handed down the decision—which was in line with the prosecution’s request and nine years more than what the defense had asked for.
The sentencing caps a case that has drawn widespread attention—most notably over Pelkey’s support for the terror group ISIS and its violent interpretation of Sunni Islam, which prosecutors say compelled him to plan an attack at a Shia mosque in Chicago.
In February of 2022, the FBI searched Pelkey’s home, finding three homemade bombs, an ISIS flag, and the paper trail of an extremist plot.
This March, a plea deal was reached, and the prosecution dropped the charge relating to the explosives. In exchange, Pelkey admitted to the plot, which he developed with two teenagers online who had also been radicalized by terrorist messaging.
At Monday’s sentencing hearing, however, it wasn’t Pelkey’s ideology that was up for debate. Instead, attorneys for both sides argued over the level of danger posed by Pelkey and his two teenage co-conspirators had the plan gone forward.
Chris McClean, the defense attorney, presented his client’s terrorist plot as a deeply regrettable action of a misguided kid, instead of that of a seasoned operative.
"This was not a very sophisticated plan. We really had three kids who were 15, 16, 17 years old," McClean said Monday.
The prosecution argued that this was unrelated to the fact that Pelkey planned to commit a mass killing.
"It doesn’t take a great degree of sophistication to commit a horrible act of violence," Craig Wolff, the assistant U.S. attorney on the case, said.
While Judge Walker considered each side’s arguments, Xavier Pelkey stood to make an unplanned statement.
Addressing the court, he admitted that his affiliation with ISIS ideology wasn’t fully in the past, remarking, "I could lie and say I’m deradicalized." However, Pelkey, who turned 20 years old just one day before his sentencing, recognized a need to seek mental health care, saying his extreme ideology "changes your thought process."
After serving his sentence, Xavier Pelkey will be under supervised release for 20 years.