Central Illinois Men Plead Guilty to Multi-State Crime Spree

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Published on January 25 2019 10:30 am
Last Updated on January 25 2019 10:30 am
Written by Greg Sapp

Two central Illinois men pleaded guilty Thursday to multiple Federal charges including civil rights charges, as part of a multi-state crime spree.

29-year-old Michael McWhorter and 23-year-old Joe Morris, both of Clarence, Illinois, pleaded guilty to throwing a pipe bomb into a mosque in Bloomington, Minnesota. They also admitted participation in an armed home invasion in Ambia, Indiana in December of 2017, and armed robberies of two Walmart stores in Illinois, one in Watseka, the other in Mt. Vernon. They also admitted to setting on fire the Women's Health Practice in Champaign.

The case of a third alleged participants in some of the incidents is yet to be decided.

McWhorter and Morris were part of a militia group in central Illinois, eventually called the "White Rabbits". The third defendant, Michael Hari, started the militia group.

McWhorter and Morris are yet to be sentenced.