One of seven Miami men accused of plotting to join forces with al-Qaeda to blow up Chicago’s Sears Tower was acquitted Thursday, and a mistrial was declared for six others after the federal jury deadlocked.
Federal prosecutor Richard Gregorie said the government would retry the six next year, and the judge said a new jury would be picked starting Jan. 7.
Lyglenson Lemorin, 32, had been accused of being a “soldier” for alleged ringleader Narseal Batiste. The jury gave up on the other defendants after nine days of deliberations on four terrorism-related conspiracy charges.
Prosecutors said the “Liberty City Seven” — so named because they operated out of a warehouse in Miami’s blighted Liberty City section — swore allegiance to al-Qaeda and hoped to forge an alliance to carry out bombings against America’s tallest skyscraper, the FBI’s Miami office and other federal buildings.
The group never actually made contact with al-Qaeda. Instead, an FBI informant posed as an al-Qaeda emissary.
The defense portrayed the seven as hapless figures who were either manipulated and entrapped by the FBI or went along with the plot to con their contact out of $50,000.
