The jury began deliberations Monday in the federal trial of four men charged with conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her restrictive COVID-19 policies in 2020.
Defense attorneys urged jurors to acquit their clients during closing arguments Friday, saying they were high all the time and engaged in “stoned crazy talk” when the kidnapping plot was allegedly hatched during the summer of 2020. They added that their clients would have never conspired to kidnap the Democratic governor if government informants embedded in the group hadn’t pushed them to do so.
But prosecutors detailed evidence showing the defendants had meticulously planned for five months to carry out the plot, with activities ranging from scouting out Whitmer’s vacation home, discussing plans to blow up a bridge to slow possible police response, and constructing a “shoot house” to practice storming and snatching the governor.
GUNS, AMMO, GAS MASK, AND PLASTIC HANDCUFFS WERE FOUND IN HOME OF WHITMER PLOTTER
“Do you know anybody who is stoned for five straight months?” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Nils Kessler on Friday.
“You heard them in their own voices over and over again,” Nils added, “talking about kidnapping her, murdering her, blowing up bridges and people and anybody who could get in her way.”
The defendants Adam Fox, Barry Croft Jr., Daniel Harris, and Brandon Caserta face life in prison if found guilty.
U.S. District Judge Robert Jonker told jurors that, as long as they find a “mutual understanding either spoken or unspoken” between the defendants, they can be found guilty of conspiracy even if their alleged plot wasn’t possible to pull off.
Christopher Gibbons, an attorney for Fox, the alleged ringleader of the plot, said his client was impressionable and was framed by undercover FBI informant Dan Chappel, whom defense attorneys claimed was the real leader of the plot.
“Dan Chappel makes everything happen,” Gibbons said.
“Adam Fox wanted to please. He was looking for connections,” Gibbons said. “Adam Fox is not the leader the government wants him to be. He never became a leader … because he isn’t a leader. He didn’t have the skills. He didn’t have the equipment.”
Gibbons said Chappel enticed his client with “free money, free bombs” and planted the idea of using explosives to detonate a bridge near Whitmer’s home to slow police response to the kidnapping.
“The need for explosives was manufactured by the government,” Gibbons said.
The defendants’ prolific use of marijuana during the summer of 2020 was referenced frequently during the four-week trial.
Defense attorneys also challenged the testimony of the government’s two star witnesses, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, who pleaded guilty to their involvement in the kidnapping plot before the trial.
Caserta’s attorney, Mike Hills, said Garbin and Franks lied on the stand to avoid long prison sentences.
“I think we tried to make it very clear that the snitches Garbin and Franks were inconsistent,” Hills told reporters Friday outside the courthouse. “They were actually lying — it was more than inconsistent. They were lying, and they were doing so for time, which is the most precious thing you can have. I’m hoping it impacted the jury.”
Both Garbin and Franks testified that the plot to kidnap Whitmer originated from the defendants, not undercover FBI informants.
Fox discussed the kidnapping plan “every time I saw him,” Franks testified.
Garbin testified that the plotters hoped kidnapping Whitmer would ensure chaos to prevent Joe Biden from defeating then-President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
“We wanted to cause as much a disruption as possible to prevent Joe Biden from getting into office,” Garbin testified. “It didn’t have to be. It was just preferred.”
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Ultimately, Garbin testified that the plotters aimed to begin a second civil war.
“We wanted to be the first to kick it off,” he said.
