Legal Insurrection readers may recall that in December 2015, the Muslim terror-couple Sayed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik killed 14 and wounded 21 at a San Bernardino Christmas Party.
The terror duo reportedly left bombs behind that were intended to detonate when first-responders arrived at the scene.
At that time, their neighbor Enrique Marquez was indicted by a federal grand jury of conspiring with the couple. He has now been tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Enrique Marquez Jr. supplied the weapons that Syed Rizwan Farook and Farook’s wife, Tashfeen Malik, used on Dec. 2, 2015, to open fire on a meeting and holiday gathering of San Bernardino County employees who worked with Farook. Minutes later, a post on a Facebook page associated with Malik pledged allegiance to the leader of the Islamic State terror group. The couple fled and died later that day in a gunbattle with authorities.Marquez, 28, showed no emotion during a federal court hearing as relatives of the victims asked the judge to give him a lengthy sentence for providing Farook the guns years before the shooting, which at the time was the deadliest terror attack in the United States since 9/11.Gregory Clayborn, whose daughter Sierra was killed, said Marquez should be held responsible for the massacre though he wasn’t the gunman.“He’s a terrorist, your honor,” Clayborn told the judge. “And if you let him out, he’s going to do it again.”
Marquez tried to claim mental illness for his actions.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Sartoris pushed for a 25-year sentence Friday, saying the 28-year-old Marquez is highly intelligent despite claims of a mental illness made in January when he sought to withdraw his admission that he provided the assault-style rifles.“His IQ is probably higher than anybody’s in the courtroom,” Sartoris said. “He knew better.”Further, she said in court, the aborted attacks “created the template” for the shooting at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino.But Judge Bernal, while describing Marquez’s crimes as “horrific and terrible offenses,” cited mitigating factors such as Marquez’s troubled upbringing and cooperation with the FBI after his 911 call identified Farook as one of the likely attackers.
Marquez’s relationship with Farook was centered on radical Islamic ideology.
Authorities have said Marquez and Farook knew each other for about a decade. In 2015, investigators said that by 2011, Farook and Marquez were spending most of their time at Farook’s home, reading, listening to lectures and watching videos “involving radical Islamic content.”Marques also told investigators their contact began to decline, beginning in 2012.”He had contact with Farook until as late as October of 2015,” Assistant US Attorney Christopher Grigg told reporters Friday. “We don’t know the full extent of their relationship.”…Prosecutors said in a sentencing memorandum that Marquez “was a full, willing, and motivated participant of the conspiracy who not only provided the agreement necessary for the conspiracy to attack (Riverside City College) and (motorists on State Route 91), but also co-designed the attacks with Farook, purchased the two firearms and ammunition to facilitate the attacks, researched bomb making and obtained explosive powder and other bomb-making materials, and visited RCC and SR-91 to sketch out how he and Farook would attack the two locations to maximize casualties.”
Marquez only called the FBI when he realized the weapons could be directly traced back to him.
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