Inglewood Student, 21, Pleads Not Guilty to Charges He Planned Terrorist Attacks

One of four men accused of plotting attacks on U.S. military facilities and Southern California synagogues pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal terrorism charges.

U.S. prosecutors say Santa Monica College student Hammad Riaz Samana, 21, was working with a prison-founded sect of radical Muslims on the bombing plan.

Samana’s lawyer said outside U.S. District Court in Santa Ana that his client was innocent.

“He is a peace-loving, responsible young man,” said attorney Timothy Lannen. “When the smoke clears, and when this case is resolved, it will show him to be the decent young man that he is.”

The bushy-haired, bearded Samana waved to four friends and relatives in the courtroom shortly after he was led inside, and a deputy U.S. marshal reprimanded him.

Samana’s father continued to gaze at his son for the half-hour he was in court.

Trial was set for Sept. 27, a date that Assistant U.S. Atty. Kevin Smith said later was scheduled in error and would probably be moved to October or November.

He estimated the trial would last 16 to 20 days for all four defendants, who are expected to stand trial together.

According to last Wednesday’s federal grand jury indictment, Folsom prison inmate Kevin Lamar James, 29, planned to bomb sites including National Guard recruitment centers and the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles. James and Samana, along with Levar Haney Washington, 25, and Gregory Vernon Patterson, 21, have been charged with conspiracy to levy war against the U.S. government through terrorism.

Washington and Patterson are expected to be arraigned in Orange County on Sept. 12. James will be transferred from prison and arraigned Sept. 26, Smith said.

Samana was a co-conspirator who helped research the targets and commit two robberies, Smith said.

“The planning was done with the intent to maximize casualties,” he said.

Several of the defendants met at a mosque across the street from Samana’s Inglewood apartment, where he had moved with his family five years ago. Patterson started attending in March and Washington in May, worshippers there have told The Times.

Washington met James while the two were at California State Prison, Sacramento, which is in Folsom.

According to the indictment, the defendants made a list of potential targets they had researched on the Internet. The defendants, prosecutors say, began robbing gas stations to raise money for the attacks, ending with a Fullerton Chevron station on July 5.

Torrance police investigating the robberies found lists of targets and other information when they searched Washington’s South Los Angeles apartment. They said surveillance had tied him to the holdups.

Authorities said they found no evidence that the men were tied to Al Qaeda or any other foreign terrorist group.