Men convicted of supporting Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot given lengthy prison sentences
A judge on Thursday handed down the longest prison terms so far in the plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, sentencing three men who forged an early alliance with a leader of the scheme before the FBI broke it up in 2020. Pete Musico was sentenced to a minimum of 12 years in prison, followed by his son-in-law Joe Morrison at 10 years and Paul Bellar at seven.
They did not have a direct role in the conspiracy but were members of a paramilitary group that trained with Adam Fox, who faces a possible life sentence in a separate case in federal court.
Morrison, Musico and Bellar will be eligible for parole after serving their terms.
The trio was convicted in October of providing material support for a terrorist act, which carries a maximum term of 20 years, and two other crimes.
Speaking in a recorded video, Whitmer urged Jackson County Judge Thomas Wilson to "impose a sentence that meets the gravity of the damage they have done to our democracy."
"A conspiracy to kidnap and kill a sitting governor of the state of Michigan is a threat to democracy itself," said Whitmer, who added that she now scans crowds for threats and worries "about the fate of everyone near me."
After the convictions of Fox and Barry Croft Jr. in August, Whitmer said the verdicts proved "that violence and threats have no place in our politics and those who seek to divide us will be held accountable."
Wilson presided over the first batch of convictions in state court, following the high-profile conspiracy convictions of four others in federal court. Fox and Croft were described as captains of an incredible plan to snatch Whitmer from her vacation home, seeking to inspire a U.S. civil war known as the "boogaloo."
Whitmer, a Democrat recently elected to a second term, was never physically harmed. Undercover FBI agents and informants were inside Fox's group for months, and the scheme was broken up with 14 arrests in October 2020.
Someone convicted of more than one crime in Michigan typically gets prison sentences that simply run at the same time. But Wilson took the unusual step of ordering consecutive sentences for Musico and Morrison, making their minimum stays longer. In addition to being convicted of supporting terrorism, the three men were also each convicted of a gun crime and of being a member in a gang.
Musico, Morrison and Bellar were members of the Wolverine Watchmen. The three held gun training with Fox in rural Jackson County and shared his disgust for Whitmer, police and public officials, especially after COVID-19 restrictions disrupted the economy and triggered armed Capitol protests and anti-government belligerence.
They were running a "terrorism training camp in Jackson County," Assistant Attorney General Sunita Doddamani told the judge.
The men expressed remorse moments after Whitmer in her video said they had failed to take responsibility.
Musico, 45, cried while acknowledging a "lack of judgment." Morrison, 28, said he was "renouncing, disavowing and detesting" anti-government ideologies. Bellar, 24, was the last to speak, publicly apologizing for abhorrent remarks about the governor.
"I was caught up highly in the moment," Bellar said. "I felt I had lost a lot of camaraderie after being discharged from the Army. That was the reason I joined the Wolverine Watchmen in the first place."
Defense lawyers still plan vigorous appeals. They argued at trial that the men had cut ties with Fox before the Whitmer plot came into focus by late summer of 2020; Bellar had moved to South Carolina in July.
They also didn't travel with Fox to look for the governor's second home or participate in a key training session inside a "shoot house" in Luther, Michigan.
"If Mr. Bellar wanted to be part of the kidnapping of the governor, he would have stayed here. ... He could have held on like a rock, like a tick in that apartment," defense attorney Andrew Kirkpatrick said.
A jury, however, quickly returned guilty verdicts in October after hearing nine days of testimony, mostly evidence offered by federal agents and a pivotal FBI informant, Dan Chappel, who secretly recorded conversations.
"The Wolverine Watchmen misappropriated the word 'patriot' all the time for a really unpatriotic objective, you know, killing fellow Americans. ... Dan is what really a patriot is," Doddamani said Thursday.
Separately, in federal court in Grand Rapids, Fox and Croft face possible life sentences in two weeks. Two men who pleaded guilty received substantial breaks: Ty Garbin is free after a 2 1/2-year prison term while Kaleb Franks was given a four-year sentence. Brandon Caserta and Daniel Harris were acquitted by a jury.
When the plot was foiled, Whitmer blamed then-President Donald Trump, saying he had given "comfort to those who spread fear and hatred and division." In August, after 19 months out of office, Trump said the kidnapping plan was a "fake deal."