By Tyler Clifford
(Reuters) – A man who pleaded guilty to charges stemming from a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor received a sentence of just over six years in prison on Wednesday, after he also agreed to testify against fellow extremists in the “Wolverine Watchmen” militia who have been accused in the conspiracy.
Ty Garbin, 25, was the first to be convicted of scheming to abduct Gretchen Whitmer, the state’s first-term Democratic governor, from her vacation home last summer. Since the FBI said it uncovered the conspiracy by members of a militia group, more than a dozen men have been charged in state or federal court.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker in Grand Rapids handed down the sentence of 75 months Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors had sought a nine-year prison sentence for Garbin, who cooperated with the government.
At the hearing, Garbin, an airplane mechanic of Hartland, Michigan, who has no criminal history, apologized to Whitmer.
“I never realized what my actions would have caused to her, but also her family,” he told the judge. “I can’t even imagine to begin to think about the amount of stress and fear her family felt because of my actions, and for that I’m truly sorry.”
Garbin broke with five co-defendants in January to submit a guilty plea to a federal kidnapping conspiracy charge. The deal included his agreement to testify against others charged in federal and state investigations, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew Birge.
In the plea, Garbin said he and co-defendants were a part of a Michigan-based anti-government militia group known as the Wolverine Watchmen. The six were arrested and charged by federal authorities last October.
Another eight men were hit with domestic terrorism charges in Michigan state court. All 14 are members or associates of the Wolverine Watchmen, prosecutors say.
Prosecutors have said the suspected participants sought Whitmer’s capture in retribution for wide-ranging public health orders imposed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including limits on social and business operations.
Whitmer, who served as a co-chair of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, accused then-President Donald Trump of hyping up far-right groups as he denounced COVID mitigation efforts carried out in Democratic states.
Officials say Garbin and others took multiple steps in planning the abduction, including a July 2020 meeting to practice using assault rifles; conducting surveillance of the governor’s vacation home; and timing the distance to the nearest police station.
Garbin’s plea agreement also claimed that Fox, one of the alleged ringleaders, had said at in a June meeting last year that “he wanted to recruit 200 people to storm the (Michigan) Capitol, try any politicians they caught for ‘treason’ and execute them by hanging on live television.”
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford; Editing by David Gregorio)
