Cousins Accused Of Plotting Terrorist Attack Against Joliet Armory Plead 'Not Guilty'

Caption: Jonas Edmonds, as he appeared in 2005 in his inmate photo at the Georgia Department of Corrections where he served five years for armed robbery.

Two Aurora cousins accused of plotting to shoot up the Joliet armory pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in federal court on Wednesday.

Hasan Edmonds, 22, an Army National Guardsman assigned to the Joliet National Guard Headquarters, and his cousin, Jonas Edmonds, 29, are charged with one count each of conspiring to provide material support and resources to the Islamic State terrorist organization.

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Hasan was arrested March 25 at Chicago Midway International Airport while attempting to board a flight to Detroit on the first leg of his journey to Cairo, Egypt. Hasan had planned to hook up with ISIL connection -- an undercover FBI information -- who would take him into Syria where he would join up with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, prosecutors said.

Jonas Edmonds was arrested at his Aurora home later that evening. Prosecutors allege that Hasan provided uniforms, a list of ranking officers and other inside information about the Joliet military facility.

While Hasan was off fighting with Islamic militants, Jonas and another man, also an undercover FBI operative, would storm the Joliet building with guns, prosecutors said.

Hasan Edmonds had been under investigation since February when he responded to a friend request by the undercover FBI operative who said he could help get the cousins into Syria, according to the federal complaint.

His cousin also began communicating online with the undercover informant, the FBI said.

The Aurora men sat shackled together in Magistrate Judge Sheila Finnegan courtroom. Jonas Edmonds yawned loudly during the proceeding while his younger cousin was barely audible when he pleaded not guilty to the charge, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The cousins each face a maximum prison sentence of 15 years if convicted.

Jonas Edmonds pleaded guilty to the armed robbery of a McDonald’s in suburban Atlanta, GA, in 2005. He served five years of a 10-year prison sentence in a Georgia prison, but was released in 2010.

Many of the men’s relatives wept during the court hearing Wednesday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in downtown Chicago, who maintain that the alleged terrorist plot is out of character for the cousins.

“My family’s not like that; we’re Americans,” the men’s aunt Tiffany Edmonds told the Tribune. “We’re happy people. They know we’re not terrorists or people who want to kill people or evil.”

The cousins are being held without bond.

ALSO on Patch:

• ‘It’s Crushing ... We’re Americans’: Aunt Says Terrorist Plot Out of Character for Cousins
• Federal Complaint Offers Inside Look At Accused Terrorist Cousins
• Joliet National Guardsman and Cousin Charged in Terrorist Plot to Attack Illinois Military Installation