By John Seewer
Associated Press
TOLEDO, Ohio — A woman who police said bought a shotgun and plotted a foiled domestic terror attack on an Ohio bar with her boyfriend pleaded guilty to conspiracy.
The pair had bomb-making materials and weapons in their home and spent months planning, including what they would wear during the attack, before they were arrested in December, prosecutors said.
Twenty-four-year-old Elizabeth Lecron, of Toledo, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists and transporting explosives. Her boyfriend, 23-year-old Vincent Armstrong, pleaded guilty earlier this month to a conspiracy charge.
Prosecutors said they were targeting a bar in downtown Toledo and had also discussed attacks on several places, including a pipeline and a livestock farm.
Court filings said the couple traveled a year ago to Colorado to see the site of the Columbine High School massacre. While away, the FBI searched their home in Toledo and said they found an AK-47, a shotgun and a stockpile of ammunition.
Lecron and Armstrong wanted to emulate the Columbine shooters during their planned attack, prosecutors said.
She planned to wear a shirt that said “False Prophet” while Armstrong had a trench coat and a T-shirt that said “society failed us,” according to investigators.
A plea agreement calls for Lecron to serve 15 years in prison, The Blade newspaper reported . Stephen Newman, a federal public defender overseeing Lecron’s attorney, declined to comment.
Armstrong could be sentenced to up to 20 years.
Authorities have said Lecron instigated the plans and that shortly after meeting Armstrong, she talked about her interest in mass killings.
Before her arrest, Lecron exchanged letters with Dylann Roof, who was sentenced to death in the killings of nine black worshippers in a racist attack at a South Carolina church, prosecutors said.
Lecron and Armstrong had practiced shooting together, looked at instructions on making bombs and referred to the planned attack as “D-Day,” prosecutors said.
Among the items found in their home and car were a tactical vest, loaded ammunition magazines, bomb instructions and several guns, according to court documents.