Crump, Adams Sentenced

Two Toccoa men convicted in a plot to produce ricin and attack the U.S. government will serve 10 year prison terms.

Samuel J. Crump and Ray H. Adams, both of Toccoa, were sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Gainesville.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Story sentenced the two men.

Following their 10-year prison terms, the two men are both subject to five years of supervised release.

The 58-year-old Adams and 71-year-old Crump were each found guilty in January on one count of Conspiracy to Possess and Produce a Biological Toxin For Use as a Weapon and Possession of a Biologicial Toxin For Use as a Weapon.

Federal prosecutors said that Crump and Adams plotted to make ricin and had actually steps towards making the toxin.

In response to the sentence handed down, U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates said that both the words and actions of these defendants supported an idea dangerous to democracy, that violence is justifiable when citizens grow frustrated with government.

Yates added that this case demonstrates that America must remain vigilant in protecting the country, not only from the threat posed by international violent extremists, but also from those within America’s own borders who threaten its safety and security.

Crump and Adams were arrested back in November 2011 in connection with this case, along with Dan Roberts of Toccoa and Frederick Thomas of Cleveland.

Previously in April 2012, Roberts and Thomas each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to obtain an unregistered explosive device and silencer in connection with the case and were sentenced to five years in federal prison later that same year.