On Wednesday, 24-year-old Enrique Marquez Jr. appeared in Riverside's federal court with both his hands and feet in chains. When asked to enter his plea of being a conspirator to one of the killers of the San Bernardino attack, Marquez pleaded "not guilty." He was facing a five-count indictment for reportedly supplying material to terrorists.
The FBI, however, revealed that Marquez had been plotting the attack with his friend, Syed Rizwan Farook. The information was given by Marquez himself during the 10 days he spent with the FBI interviewing him on his involvement in the attack. According to the information supplied by the FBI, Marquez and Farook both discussed the attack but did not proceed on the actual slaughtering of students at a nearby community college along with the motorists murdered on the congested freeway on the Dec. 2 shootings.
The attack was carried out by 28-year-old Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, last December 2, 2015. As a whole, the two were able to kill 14 individual and have left 22 others wounded. Hours later, they were killed by the police in a shootout. The couple fired at a building where an ongoing meeting among San Bernardino county health department officials was holding. They were Farook's colleagues.
Both Marquez and Farook grew up as friends when they lived next to each other in Riverside. As a teenager, Marquez was introduced by Farook to Islamic religion; which indoctrinated him in violent extremism. In 2011 and 2012, Marquez purchase rifles for Farook. They had also planned to carry out a shooting and even launch a bomb at Riverside City College, where the two took classes.
According to the police, while Marquez himself was not involved in the attack, he failed to give a warning to authorities regarding the plotted murder. At the same time, he did not inform the authorities when Farook purchased the guns. Marquez is facing a couple of firearms violations in his involvement of purchasing the guns used since Farook was unable to purchase these guns on his own as he "looked Middle Eastern." Farook is the son of Pakistani immigrants but was born in the US.
At the same time, Marquez could be charged with marriage fraud and also for lying on immigration paperwork when he got married to a Russian woman. The woman's sister was also married to the brother of Farook. Marquez had earlier admitted that he was paid $200 a month for marrying the woman.
Following his "not guilty" plea, a jury trial has been scheduled for February 23. If found guilty, Marquez could be facing imprisonment for up to 50 years. After the arraignment, Lawyer Young J. Kim refused to leave a comment on behalf of his client. A previous lawyer for Marquez, however, was unable to grant his request for his client to be released on bond for willingly speaking to the FBI and for not fleeing from the case.
