A federal judge sentenced Schofield Barracks soldier Ikaika Erik Kang to 25 years in prison Tuesday for trying to help the Islamic State group, or IS.
Senior U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway told the 35-year-old Kang, “The conduct that you committed was extremely serious. It had the potential to be disastrous.”
In addition to giving undercover FBI agents he thought were IS fighters a training video, a camera-mounted drone, sensitive military documents and gear, Kang said he wanted to shoot up downtown
Honolulu and Waikiki and attack Schofield as a suicide bomber.
Kang’s court-appointed lawyer Birney Bervar said after the sentencing, “Certainly, had those threats been carried out, yes, it would have been a catastrophe. But he never acted on any of that.”
The FBI arrested Kang in July 2017, the day he made the downtown and Waikiki threats, pledged his loyalty to the IS leader and kissed the IS flag.
Kang told Mollway, “I know what I did was wrong. I admit to doing it. When I’m released, I won’t do it again.”
After he completes his prison term, Kang must submit to 20 years of probationlike court supervision.
He pleaded guilty in August in a deal with the government to four counts of attempting to provide
material support or resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization. Each charge carries a maximum 20-year prison term.
The deal specified the 25-year prison term and 20 years of court supervision. The government also promised not to charge Kang with federal espionage, terrorism, firearm and other crimes.
Without the deal, Bervar said, Kang would have faced a possible life prison sentence.
The FBI started investigating Kang in August 2016 after he was disciplined several times for arguing pro-IS views at work. During the investigation the FBI discovered Kang had become radicalized, watching hours of IS propaganda videos of beheadings, shootings and suicide bombings.
Bervar said Kang clearly had some mental health issues, but the military treated him only superficially. And instead of seeking further treatment for Kang, he said, the Army started investigating him.
Kang’s father and older sister attended Tuesday’s sentencing but declined to comment afterward.
His father previously
had said he believed his son was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Kang’s sister said in a letter to the court that her brother grew up in a mentally and physically abusive household and that his father suffered from mental health issues.
Two former Army supervisors said in their letters to Mollway that Kang had his own mental health issues and was susceptible to influence.
Bervar said Kang is a suggestible person and believes he was enticed into doing what he did by the undercover agents. He said he had a thorough mental evaluation performed on Kang but didn’t share the findings with the government or the court because there was nothing in them to support an entrapment defense.
“There were many opportunities for him to stop, to rescind, to take back the classified information he disclosed, and he didn’t do it,” Bervar said.
At the time of his arrest, Kang, a 2001 Kaiser High School graduate, was a sergeant first class air traffic controller for the 25th Combat Aviation Brigade at Wheeler Army Airfield. He remained on active duty status during his prosecution, but Bervar said he expects the Army will soon discharge Kang.
