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Gregory Lepsky, 22, of Point Pleasant, will have to serve all of the sentence: There's no parole in the federal prison system.
Lepsky cut a deal with the government, pleading guilty last March to "attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization" in exchange for a sentence more lenient than if he'd been convicted at a trial.
Originally insisting his name was Allah Abdel Rochman, Lepsky had his plans revealed when police arrested him for trying to kill the family dog with a combat knife.
Investigators said they found the pressure cooker in a bedroom room closet, along with the book “Martyrdom in Jihad versus Suicide Bombing.”
While in custody, he said he also intended to kill his mother, a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court of New Jersey says.
The complaint says Lepsky downloaded a bomb-making how-to piece published in the Al Qaeda magazine “Inspire.”
His cellphone's history included the terms “knife used for beheading,” “how to make anthrax powder” and “terrorist attacks 2016,” it says.
Lepsky admitted that he told others on social media that he was ready to become a martyr by driving a “bunch of explosives” to where the “enemies” could be found and blowing himself up using improvised explosives if ISIS couldn't do it, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito and Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers said in a joint release.
In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Shipp sentenced Lepsky to lifetime supervised release.
Carpenito and Demers credited the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the N.J. State Attorney General’s Office, the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office; Point Pleasant police and the N.J. Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness with making the case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Donnelly of Carpenito's Criminal Division in Newark and Trial Attorney Justin Sher of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section
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