BOSTON (AP) – A prosecutor and defense attorney have painted starkly different pictures of a Massachusetts man accused of participating in a plot to behead a conservative blogger who angered Muslims when she organized a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Siegmann told jurors during her opening statement Tuesday that David Wright, his uncle and another man agreed to kill Pamela Geller in 2015. The plot wasn’t carried out.
Siegmann said Wright also wanted to wage other attacks in the U.S. and inflict more than the damage caused by the Boston bombing.
Wright’s attorney sought to portray him as a lost young man who became consumed by the Islamic State group in attempt to escape reality.
The cartoon contest in Garland, Texas, ended in gunfire, with two Muslim gunmen killed by police.
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