SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a shooting and searching for a suspect.

By STEPHAN BISAHA

Three men were found guilty Wednesday of conspiring to blow up an apartment complex in western Kansas that housed Somali immigrants.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. They were also found guilty of conspiring to violate the housing rights of their intended victims. Wright also was found guilty of lying to the FBI.

The men could face life in prison. Sentencing is set for June 27.

Stein, of Wright, Kansas, and Wright, of Beaver County, Okla., are both 49; Stein, of Liberal, Kansas, is 50.

The jury returned its verdict Wednesday just before 2 p.m., less than a day after beginning deliberations.

“It’s a good day for Garden City, a good day for Kansas and the United States to continue putting the message that our communities will not tolerate such nonsense or criminal behavior,” Garden City Police Chief Michael Utz said after the verdict was announced.

“If individuals hear something or see something they need to say something to stop this kind of activity … so we can prevent a death or mass casualties.”

Adan Keynan, the owner of the African Shop in Garden City, said the verdict should make everyone in the community happy. He worried about the impact on the town if the men had been found not guilty.

“There’s so many things going on in this country … injustices,” he said. “People were worried about (an acquittal). People would have been heartbroken.”

Prosecutors said the three men planned to bomb the Garden City apartment complex, which also housed a mosque, the day after the 2016 presidential election to give America a “forced wake-up call” on dangers they believed were posed by immigrants. They were arrested in October 2016.

“They wanted to send the message that Muslims are not welcome here – not in Garden City, not in Kansas, not in America,” prosecutor Risa Berkower said during the trial.

The key prosecution witness in the case was Dan Day, an FBI informant who recorded hours of conversation with the three men, who were part of the Kansas Security Force militia.

Day said he approached authorities after becoming increasingly concerned about the defendants’ discussions to kill Muslim immigrants.

“They had set their minds on getting rid of all the … Muslims, killing them,” he testified during the trial.

The defense attorneys argued that Day’s recordings of the men talking didn’t reflect a conspiracy, just “banter” and constitutionally protected free speech.

“It is not morally right to hold such hate, but it is not legally wrong,” said James Pratt, Stein’s attorney.

The free speech debate was personified by one witness, a member of a militia whom Stein tried to recruit to his cause.

The witness had previously posted on Facebook that he wanted to kill all Muslims. The prosecution said that the witness was not on trial because he refused Stein’s invitation to join the plot and, unlike the defendants, his words never became actions.

The defense countered that if the witness thought the defendants were going too far, he should have contacted law enforcement.

The defense also argued that Day was not a hero, as the prosecution portrayed him, but a bounty hunter who exploited the defendants and pushed them along at times when the plan seemed to be falling apart. Day was paid more than $32,000 for his work as an informant, according to court testimony.

The attorneys maintained throughout the trial that the FBI manipulated the case against the defendants.

“The FBI created and directed all of this,”said Richard Federico, Allen’s lawyer.

In a news conference after the trial, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said the verdict vindicated the FBI regarding the defense’s accusations.

“Part of that certainly was an attack on the FBI itself,” he said. “And the jury obviously felt this was well done, the evidence was there and they returned guilty verdicts.”

Pratt, Stein’s attorney, said that when Stein suggested backing out of the plan, Day urged him to stay. Multiple audio clips were played throughout the trial, taken from the hundreds of hours of recordings covertly captured by Day. In one clip, the three defendants are heard discussing putting knives and ball bearings into a bomb to maximize the damage.

“The only reason in the world to put ball bearings and razor blades inside a bomb is because you want to kill as many people as you can,” prosecutor Tony Mattivi said.

The plan unraveled when Allen’s ex-girlfriend reported him to police in Liberal, Kansas, for alleged domestic violence. She also told law enforcement the men had weapons and were making explosives. Wright and Stein were arrested soon after.

“Now that they’ve been found guilty, there can be some ease and some peace of mind,” Finney County Sheriff Kevin Bascue said Wednesday. “But I don’t think this community will ever forget.”

Stephan Bisaha is an education reporter for the Kansas News Service. Follow him on Twitter @SteveBisaha. 

Frank Morris of KCUR and Ben Kuebrich of HPPR contributed to this report.

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By ROXANA HEGEMAN

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A federal jury on Wednesday found three men guilty of plotting to bomb a mosque and apartment complex housing Somali refugees in Kansas.

Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen were convicted of one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and one count of conspiracy against civil rights. Wright was convicted of a charge of lying to the FBI. Sentencing is set for June 27.

The three men were indicted in October 2016 for plotting an attack for the day after the presidential election in the meatpacking town of Garden City, about 220 miles (350 kilometers) west of Wichita.

Prosecutors have said that a fellow militia member, Dan Day, tipped off federal authorities after becoming alarmed by the escalating talk of violence and later agreed to wear a wire as a paid informant. The government’s case featured months of profanity-laced recordings in which militia members discussed plans and referred to the Somalis as “cockroaches.”

Wright is captured in one recording saying he hoped an attack on the Somalis would “wake people up” and inspire others to take similar action against Muslims.

The government argued that the men formed a splinter group of the militia Kansas Security Force that came to be known as “the Crusaders.” The testimony and recordings indicate the men tried to recruit other members of the Kansas Security Force to join them.

According to prosecutors, Stein was recorded discussing the type of fuel and fertilizer bomb that Timothy McVeigh used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. Stein was arrested when he delivered 300 pounds (135 kilograms) of fertilizer to undercover FBI agents to make explosives.

Attorneys for the defense said the FBI set up the men with a paid informant and all the talk about violence wasn’t serious. They said the men had a right to free speech and association under the U.S. Constitution.

Prosecutors argued the plot was more than just words, telling jurors that the men also manufactured homemade explosives and tested them.

SHAWNEE COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a suspect on drug charges after an I-70 traffic stop.

Just after 11:30a.m. Wednesday, deputies stopped a vehicle near Urish Road for a license plate registration violation, according to   Sergeant Todd Stallbaumerl.

The suspect identified as 29-year-old Robert C. Rodriguez, refused to follow a deputy’s instructions. Another officer tased Rodriguez.

He was taken to a local hospital for a medical examination before being booked for possession of marijuana with the intent to sell and possession of drug paraphernalia. Deputies reported finding 11.5 pounds of marijuana worth approximately $20,000 inside the vehicle

Rodriguez is being held without bond.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — American sorghum farmers fear they will lose their largest export market if China follows through with a tariff on their crop.

China imposed preliminary anti-dumping tariffs of 178.6 percent on U.S. sorghum this week as part of its ongoing trade dispute with the U.S.

President Donald Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on up to $150 billion of Chinese goods to counteract what he says are that country’s unfair trade policies.

Sorghum farmers like Don Bloss in southeast Nebraska are caught in the crossfire. Bloss said the tariff news isn’t enough for him to change what he plants this year, but farmers will have to adjust if the tariff is enacted.

“We can’t make real quick decision,” he said.

According to the Kansas Grain Sorghum Commission, the Sorghum Belt runs from South Dakota to Southern Texas and the crop is grown primarily on dryland acres.  In addition to animal feed it is used for ethanol production. Kansas, Texas and Arkansas are among the top Sorghum producing states, according to the the commission’s web site.

It won’t be easy replacing the Chinese market. Last year, Chinese buyers purchased more than 90 percent of the 245 million bushels of sorghum America exported.

“Basically, this will shut off grain sorghum exports to China for the United States,” said Mark Welch, an agricultural economist at Texas A&M University.

Sorghum, which is used primarily as animal feed and in liquor distilling, is grown in crop rotations with corn and in areas where conditions are dry because it is drought tolerant. But it is a smaller U.S. crop, grown on about 6 million acres compared to corn and soybeans, which will each be planted on nearly 90 million acres this year.

Both U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and the National Sorghum Producers association said they may challenge the tariff.

“Our sorghum producers are the most competitive in the world and we do not believe there is any basis in fact for these actions,” Perdue said.

A spokeswoman for the sorghum producers trade group said sorghum prices fell 20 to 25 percent after China announced in February it was launching an investigation into the sorghum trade. Prices declined again this week.

In the long run, Bloss said he believes farmers will find a new market for their sorghum, whether that’s other export markets or ethanol producers. Having lived through the effects U.S. tariffs on Russia had on grain markets in the 1980s helps give the 69-year-old Bloss confidence.

“There’s going to be market opportunities out there,” he said.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (AP) — The mother of a 17-year-old who was shot to death by an Overland Park police officer is suing the officer and the city.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Sheila Albers says the officer who shot her son in January was never in danger and used excessive force. The lawsuit also contends Overland Park didn’t have adequate policies or didn’t enforce its policies.

Officers went to the Albers’ home in January after someone reported he was on social media and appeared to be suicidal. Police said Albers backed a minivan out of the family’s garage toward an officer, who shot at the van 13 times after his orders to stop were ignored.

Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe ruled in February that the shooting was justified.

GEARY COUNTY —A 25-year-old Kansas man has been sentenced to 44 years in prison for fatally shooting a Manhattan man during a robbery in 2016.

Joseph “DoDa” Craig was sentenced Wednesday in Geary County.

In February, a jury found him guilty in the January 2016 shooting death of David Phillips, 23, Manhattan., at a West 12th Street Apartment in Junction City.

Craig was also found guilty of Intentional Second Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit First Degree Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Aggravated Robbery, Aggravated Robbery, and Felon in Possession of a Firearm,

A second defendant in the case, 20-year-old Gabby Williams was sentenced in February to 15-years in prison for her role in the murder and robbery.