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| Photo Credit: AP. |
(AP) - A judge on Friday slashed nearly four years off the prison sentence of a star witness who pleaded guilty in the plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor and helped federal prosecutors.
Ty Garbin’s
sentence of 6 1/4 years was reduced to 2 1/2 years, a reward even greater than
prosecutors had sought.
U.S.
District Judge Robert Jonker cited Garbin’s “substantial assistance” to the government
and his own assessment of the 26-year-old airplane mechanic, who cooperated
soon after his arrest, pleaded guilty and testified at two trials.
Prosecutors
had requested a 36-month reduction while Garbin’s attorneys asked for 51
months. Jonker settled on a 45-month break.
Garbin has
been in custody since he and five other men were arrested in October 2020. Even
after his guilty plea, he’s been locked up in local jails instead of the
federal system in order to be nearby to assist authorities.
“This puts
him in a really great position to transition to home detention or a halfway
house pretty quickly,” attorney Gary Springstead said of the shorter sentence.
The first
trial, last spring, ended with acquittals for Daniel Harris and Brandon Caserta
and no verdicts for Adam Fox and Barry Croft Jr.
Fox and
Croft were convicted at a second trial in August in Grand Rapids, Michigan,
following Garbin’s testimony.
He said the
goal was to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer from her vacation home and spark a
civil war, known among right-wing extremists as the “boogaloo.” The FBI, which
had agents and informants inside the group, stopped the plot.
Garbin will
likely testify for prosecutors in separate but related cases filed against
others in state court.
Kaleb
Franks, 28, also pleaded guilty and assisted the government. He has not been
sentenced yet.
White
reported from Detroit. Follow him at http://twitter.com/edwritez