By Jim Schoettler
Florida Times-Union
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A 19-year-old Jacksonville man was charged Thursday with planning to fight in an overseas holy war he and others trained for while seeking guidance from terrorists, including the late Osama bin Laden.
Shelton Thomas Bell, in jail since January in an unrelated case, also is accused of using his training to stage a night “mission” last year that damaged religious statues at a cemetery near his East Arlington home, said an indictment returned by a federal grand jury Thursday.
The self-employed computer repairman is accused of making recruiting videos for his planned fight in Yemen, though it’s unclear if his travels to the Middle East ever got him that far.
A Jacksonville-based terrorism task force composed of local, state and federal agencies uncovered the plot, but neither the indictment nor a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said what tipped them off.
Bell roused suspicions at the Islamic Center in Jacksonville last year for discussions he was having with teens who attended the center, including talks about jihad and the civil war in Syria, said Parvez Ahmed, the board secretary at the Northeast Florida center.
Ahmed said parents came to the leadership with concerns, and center attorneys contacted the FBI. Federal agents subsequently visited the center several times to interview administrators and others.
“We felt he was having conversations with younger kids that concerned us … about violence and things like that,” Ahmed said.
He said he has not seen Bell since late last year.
The indictment accuses Bell of planning to travel to the Arabian Peninsula and join Ansar Al-Sharia, an alias for al-Qaida, in violence he termed a “jihad,” the indictment said. The terrorist group has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012 that killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers.
Bell is charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. No other arrests have been reported, though an unidentified juvenile worked closely with Bell and traveled with him to the Middle East, the indictment said.
Bell has been in the Duval County jail since January on charges of grand theft and organized fraud. His bail is $200,000. A date has not been set for his initial appearance in federal court.
The indictment said that between May and September 2012, Bell and others engaged in physical fitness and firearms training to prepare for armed conflict in the Middle East. The indictment said the training occurred in Jacksonville, but didn’t say where.
Bell and an unidentified person are accused of participating in a July 4 night “mission” in which they dressed in dark clothes, wore masks and gloves, wrapped their footwear in tape and damaged statues at the Chapel Hills Memory Gardens cemetery. Bell is accused of recording the action at the East Arlington cemetery at 850 St Johns Bluff Road N. for a recruiting video.
A receptionist at the cemetery said Thursday no one was available to comment. The cemetery is just east of Bell’s home.
Bell and one or two others are also accused of training with firearms on July 4 and July 10 and recorded the latter exercise, the indictment said.
“Bell referred to this training as ‘practicing jihad’ and identified his real target as ‘not the American people, just the flag and the government,’ ” the indictment said.
After more training in late July, Bell applied for an expedited passport. Before heading overseas in September, Bell leased a laptop computer to communicate with unidentified people in the U.S. once he and an unidentified juvenile arrived in the Middle East.
He also used the laptop to download lectures and instruction from known terrorist leaders, including Anwar Al-Awlaki and bin Laden, the indictment said. He also researched maps, locations and crossing points to enter Yemen.
Before leaving, Bell and the juvenile went to a Jacksonville Walmart and bought gauze pads, batteries, athletic tape, razors and a computer storage device as part of their plan. It’s unclear how they intended to use the materials.
Bell and the juvenile, using $4,500 Bell defrauded from someone to buy airfare, flew in late September from Jacksonville to New York to Poland to Israel, where they were denied entry. It’s unclear why they were turned back.
They returned to Poland, then flew to Turkey and arrived in Jordan on Sept. 28. They contacted an unidentified person who knew about the plan and could facilitate their travel to Yemen, the indictment said. It’s unclear if either Bell or the juvenile got to Yemen.
Bell returned to Jacksonville in November. There was no mention of what happened to the juvenile.
Bell’s last address is listed in police records as in the 10200 block of Astronaut Court in Atlantic Boulevard Estates, just west of Jacksonville Executive Airport at Craig. He last attended Englewood High School, records show.
A woman who identified herself as Bell’s mother told the Times-Union he’d converted to Islam and had been overseas, but she gave no details. Though he’s been indicted, she insisted it doesn’t make the accusations true. She did not want to comment further.
Two teens who spoke briefly to a reporter at the home said they were his 14-year-old twin brothers. Neighbors described Bell as a quiet person who enjoyed working on computers at a local flea market.
Ahmed said Bell attended the center about 18 months to two years ago.
“He kind of stood out. He dressed differently,” he said, sometimes wearing very traditional clothing.
Ahmed said it was thought Bell was going through a fascination phase with Islam.
“He looked kind of out of place, out of context,” he said.
But Bell’s rhetoric, “how he was trying to incite,” startled parents who reported the conversations, Ahmed said.
An arrest report in the January case said he was working in a booth at the Pecan Park Flea Market in north Jacksonville in 2012 when he cleaned out his inventory and disappeared. Several customers told police he’d taken their computers, and they learned he’d bought a one-way ticket to Israel, where he’d stayed for several months.
Copyright 2013 The Florida Times-Union