Education
Finton has said he was born in Visalia, California, and moved with his family to Warren, Michigan, where he attended high school.
Finton has said he was born in Visalia, California, and moved with his family to Warren, Michigan, where he attended high school.
He pleaded guilty in federal court on 9 May 2011 and was sentenced to 28 years in prison. A resident of Decatur, Illinois, Finton was arrested by an undercover agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Federal Bureau of Investigation) Anti-Terrorism Task Force, who was posing as an First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Qaeda operative. He was charged with attempted murder and attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.
He later moved to Illinois.
Assault conviction and conversion
On February 3, 1999, Finton robbed a store in Olney, Illinois, and injured the clerk on duty. Finton was convicted of aggravated assault and aggravated robbery, and spent 1999–2005 in prison.
Finton had quoted the cleric on his Myspace page. After his return to the United States, Finton happened to make contact with an undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent, who posed as an First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Qaeda operative.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation agent worked with him to plan an attack on the Springfield Federal Building and procure the supplies to carry it out.
On September 24, 2009, Finton drove a truck filled with an inert substance that he believed to be "a ton of explosives" to the federal courthouse building, parked, locked it, and left in another vehicle driven by the undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. Finton tried to detonate the dummy explosives remotely via cell-phone. He was arrested and placed in federal custody on charges of terrorism and attempting to kill a federal employee.
Finton was indicted by a federal grand jury on October 8, 2009, for attempted murder and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property owned and used by the United States. On May 9, 2011, he pleaded guilty and was immediately sentenced to 28 years in prison.