Mississippi Woman Who Tried to Join ISIS With Her Fiancé Pleads Guilty

The woman's fiancé pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this month.

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A Mississippi woman pleaded guilty on Tuesday after she and her fiancé were accused of attempting to join ISIS. Jaelyn Delshaun Young, 20, pleaded guilty to conspiring to provide support and personnel to a terrorist organization, the Clarion-Ledgerreports. Young's fiancé, Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla, pleaded guilty to similar charges earlier this month.

"I found the contacts, made arrangements, planned the departure," Young wrote in a farewell letter obtained by authorities last August, according to the New York Post. "I am guilty of what you soon will find out." Though her sentencing will come at a later date, the Associated Press reports the former cheerleader and honor student faces a prison sentence as high as 20 years and $250,000 in fines. Young originally had designs on masking their international move as part of their honeymoon, though such plans were eventually abandoned.

The couple was busted just before hopping a flight from Columbus to Istanbul, which they reportedly purchased using a credit card belonging to Young's mother. Undercover federal agents initially got in touch with Young and Dakhlalla after noticing several ISIS-related posts on social media. "Young continually asked Dakhlalla when they were going to join (ISIS) and began to express hatred for the U.S. government and to express support for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States," prosecutors revealed earlier this month, as quoted byAP.

Young, who is believed to have first become interested in the terrorist group while studying chemistry at Mississippi State University, is described by authorities as the one who "prodded Dakhlalla" into trying to join ISIS. At one point, CNNnotes, Young allegedly "praised" the Chattanooga attacks in July of last year. "The number of supporters are growing," Young reportedly said in a message to undercover agents.

Jaelyn Delshaun Young and Muhammad Oda Dakhlalla are both currently being held in an Oxford jail, where the couple awaits sentencing.

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