NC man with ties to ISIS sentenced to life in prison

ASHEVILLE, NC (FOX 46 WJZY) - A Morganton, NC man accused of supporting ISIS will spend the rest of his life in prison.

Justin Sullivan, 21, was sentenced to life imprisonment Tuesday in federal court for planning murderous attack in support of ISIS.During his sentencing, Sullivan told the court that he's "not a bad person," and that, "things just happened."

According to investigators, Sullivan, who was still a teenager at the time of his arrest, was planning to buy an assault rifle from a local gun show and slaughter at least 1,000 people during a concert in Charlotte. He pleaded guilty to attempting to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries on Nov. 29, 2016.

Court documents state that starting no later than September 2014, Sullivan sought out and downloaded violent ISIS attacks on the Internet, such as beheadings, and collected them on his laptop. Court records indicate that he openly expressed support for ISIS in his home and destroyed religious items that belonged to his parents.

The DOJ believes that Sullivan went through with a least one of those assassinations. He is suspected of killing his neighbor, John Clark, 74, and burying him in a shallow grave. Sullivan will later stand trial for the murder charges where he could face the death penalty.

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