Whitmer Kidnap Plot Leader Gets 16 Years In Prison

MICHIGAN — One of the leaders in the Whitmer kidnapping plot was sentenced to 16 years in prison Tuesday.

Adam Fox, 39, was sent to prison by Judge Robert J. Jonker four months after a jury found Fox and Delaware truck driver Barry Croft Jr. guilty on all counts, including conspiring to kidnap Whitmer and to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property. Croft Jr. will be sentenced Wednesday.

Although Jonker rejected a plea from prosecutors to send Fox to prison for life, he said the crimes require "significant sentence."

"It’s too much. Something less than life gets the job done in this case," Jonker said, later adding that 16 years in prison "is still in my mind a very long time."

Prosecutors said Fox and Croft Jr. intended to kidnap Governor Whitmer from her vacation cottage near Elk Rapids and use weapons of mass destruction to blow up a bridge to hinder responding police.

Defense lawyers, on the other hand, argued Fox was not a leader in the plot, but rather someone who was a follower and got involved with the militia movement while struggling with depression and anxiety.

Fox and Croft were ordered to a retrial after a jury was initially deadlocked on charges against the two in April. During that trial, two others were found not guilty by the jury.

Two others, Ty Garbin and Kaleb Franks, pleaded guilty to federal kidnapping conspiracy charges and testified as the government's star witnesses.

The Associated Press contributed to this report