Daily Breeze (Los Angeles) : 3rd man pleads guilty in terror plot

3rd man pleads guilty in terror plot

By Cathy Franklin, Staff Writer | December 17, 2007

A third man pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to levy war against the U.S. government as part of a prison-based plot to rob Torrance gas stations to finance terrorist strikes against military, Jewish and Israeli targets.

Gregory Patterson, 23, formerly of Gardena, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and discharge a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, stemming from a series of 10 robberies that netted "a couple thousand" dollars, a federal prosecutor said.

Patterson faces 25 years to life when he is sentenced April 14 by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas McCormick said outside court that "practically speaking," Patterson faces up to 25 years in prison, as does Levar Haney Washington, 28, who pleaded guilty Friday to the same charges.

Washington is set to be sentenced April 28, while sentencing will be March 31 for 31-year-old Kevin James, who also pleaded guilty Friday.

James, who founded the radical Islamic organization known as Jam'iyyat Ul-Islam Is-Saheeh in 1997 while incarcerated at Folsom prison, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy to levy war against the United States. James faces up to 20 years in prison.

The men, along with Hammad Samana of Inglewood, were indicted in 2005 for what authorities said was a plot to attack American military facilities, Israeli government offices and synagogues in the Los Angeles area.

has been declared incompetent to stand trial and is confined to a federal medical facility, McCormick said.

According to McCormick, James recruited Washington while both men were in prison, and Washington then recruited Patterson and Samana after he was released.

After the men swore oaths to JIS, they set out to research a number of military recruiting stations and other facilities, including synagogues and a place referred to as a "camp of Zion."

From May 30, 2005, to July 5, 2005, Washington, Patterson and Samana used a shotgun in the Torrance gas station heists, McCormick said.

Patterson's defense attorney Winston McKesson said his client fell under the spell of Washington, a charismatic character.

Patterson, McKesson said, "led a typical middle-class life."

"He was a good student, he worked, he was never in trouble," McKesson said. "We all have our personal flaws and he is a follower."

Patterson was studying Islam at a center and Washington came there to speak.

The two men roomed together, McKesson said, and "Washington manipulated him emotionally and intellectually and physically abused him."

McKesson said he will be "zealous" in his efforts to "minimize the severity of punishment" Patterson ultimately receives at his sentencing.