Orange County man sentenced to prison for attempting to support Islamic State

An Orange County man who lied to get a U.S. passport to go overseas as part of his mission to join the Islamic State group in Syria was sentenced Monday to 15 years in prison.

The case against Adam Dandach, 22, is one of several involving young men from California to Georgia who authorities charged with attempting to help Islamic State and other terrorist groups.

Dandach, who lived in Orange with his mother and younger sister, pleaded guilty last year to trying to provide material support to a terrorist group and lying on his passport application. U.S. Atty. Eileen M. Decker said the judge granted the statutory maximum sentence, adding that FBI agents continue to work to find people “who are very vulnerable to recruitment from these organizations.”

“This type of [person], when they are traveling, they sometimes make up reasons to head out of town. They say they’re going to get married, going on a family trip or going overseas to conduct charitable activities,” Decker said.

The U.S. “faces significant threat from terrorists’ acts planned or committed by homegrown violent extremists like [the] defendant who become radicalized online and seek to engage in terror and support groups like ISIL,” federal prosecutors wrote in court filings, using an acronym for Islamic State.

U.S. District Judge James V. Selna in Santa Ana discussed the seriousness of Dandach’s actions before imposing the sentence. Court documents show that the defendant, born in Anaheim, had been arrested on his way to Syria via Istanbul. He grew up bullied and taunted for his Arabic heritage and for having been overweight. He was eventually pulled out of class to be home-schooled.

His parents divorced when he was 9 and his father inflicted emotional and physical harm on Dandach, his mother and his siblings, later leaving the family, according to documents that also show the defendant wrote poetry based on his violent past. At 16, doctors placed him under psychiatric evaluation twice.

On Monday, as his mother sobbed, Dandach stood in the courtroom, thin and wearing shackles and a tan jumpsuit, saying he had separated himself from the person he was before.

“Pardon me for my poor judgment,” he said. “I believe it should be understood that I am just a hollow shell of what I used to be.”

Dandach had praised terrorists and promoted their lectures and videos on the Internet. Once his mother took his passport to prevent him from fleeing, he lied to get a replacement — saying he accidentally threw away his old document. Then he booked a trip for July 2014, according to officials.

FBI agents stopped him at John Wayne Airport, finding his smartphone loaded with songs supporting Islamic State fighters, maps of areas the group controlled and its Twitter updates.

Prosecutors say Dandach told the agents he planned to pledge allegiance to Islamic State and train with weapons to defend himself. He also studied materials on achieving martyrdom through jihadi fighting.

In court papers, defense lawyer Pal Lengyel-Leahu wrote that his client had been treated for a host of psychological problems from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder after suffering an abusive childhood.

Dandach discovered his calling in religion, aiming to travel to a place where people professed those beliefs, the lawyer wrote, saying that his client never planned any terrorist acts.

Lengyel-Leahu called the sentence harsh. The judge “looked at the case and he treated Adam as if he were like every other travel case,” he said.

anh.do@latimes.com

@newsterrier

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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UPDATES:

3:10 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from court.

12:05 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details and background.

This story was originally posted at 10:40 a.m.