The northern man of the state of New York who went to prison for illegal weapons was prey to white supremacists, says the lawyer

Syracuse, NY – A Chenango County man was sentenced Wednesday for having an illegal weapon he had after falling prey to white supremacists, lawyers said.

Benjamin Wheeler, 20, from Norwich, was sentenced to eight months in a federal prison after having a short -groomed cannon rifle, said prosecutors of the United States Prosecutor’s Office for the Northern District of New York.

Wheeler was found an AR-15-style rifle with a barrel less than 16 inches on August 6 in his apartment in 44 N. Broad St. in Norwich, prosecutors said in judicial documents.

He showed an undercover agent the weapon and admitted that it was a crime to have it without registering, but did not want to be “on a list,” prosecutors said. He stored it inside a coffee table that had a secret compartment, prosecutors said.

While looking in Wheeler’s apartment, it was also discovered that he had an armor of the body, a Kevlar helmet and a communications system that worked with his tactical team, according to a memorandum of sentence written by Geoffrey Brown, an assistant prosecutor of US US.

Wheeler had also downloaded the manifesto of a mass shooter, Brown wrote. No evidence was found to plan an attack, he said.

It was discovered that he was interacting with “individuals who adopted violent and racially motivated extremist beliefs,” online and in real life, he wrote.

Wheeler’s defense lawyer, Melissa Swartz, wrote that she tried to find friends online at the age of 15 because she was educated at home and lacked social ties.

When I was 19, I was “completely rooted” with White Lives Matter and Storm-14, Swartz wrote.

“Benjamin was the perfect dam for these people, who soon introduced the lonely and impressionable Benjamin to fascist ideologies,” he wrote. “This indoctrination led him to the instant crime of possession of firearms.”

Since then he has become regret and realizes that these beliefs were wrong, he said.

Brown agrees that he has realized his mistakes, writing that he received a “attention call.”

Wheeler was sentenced to eight months, prosecutors said. After being released, it will be under supervised release for three months, prosecutors said.