NEW YORK (AP) — The man who opened fire in a classroom at Virginia’s Old Dominion University completed a drug treatment program that allowed him early release from federal prison, even though he was convicted of a terrorism charge that should have disqualified him from that benefit.
Mohamed Bailor Jalloh was sentenced to 11 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2017 to providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, the Islamic State group, and was released about 2 1/2 years early, according to prison records.
The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed Friday that Jalloh was released in December 2024 because of a loophole in a legal provision that allows some inmates to shave time off their sentences by completing a substance abuse treatment program.
The agency told The Associated Press that it has since closed the loophole and has changed its policies to bar inmates with terrorism-related convictions from being released in that manner. It said that its previous attempts to update a list of excluded offenses had stalled in negotiations with the union representing correctional workers, the Bureau of Prisons said.
Since canceling the “not one inmate with terrorism related charges has received time credit†for completing the drug treatment program, the agency said.
Under federal law, violent offenders aren’t eligible for sentence reductions through the prison system’s drug treatment program. The program, known as RDAP, is typically available only to inmates with drug-related charges, which Jalloh didn’t have.
“It’s highly insulting to put the blame on the union. We have no say so in that,†union official and former correctional worker Jose Rojas said.
Jalloh, a former Virginia Army National Guard member who authorities said was taking online classes at the university, killed one person and wounded two other people in Thursday’s shooting. ROTC students subdued and killed him.
Some elected officials questioned how someone with known ties to the Islamic State group was able to carry out such an attack.
“The horrific tragedy that occurred today on ODU’s campus never should have happened,†U.S. Rep. Jen Kiggans, who represents the congressional district neighboring the university, wrote on Facebook.
Jalloh had been incarcerated at a low-security federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, and was was transferred to a residential reentry center, or halfway house, in the Baltimore area in August 2024, the Bureau of Prisons said. He was released from federal custody on Dec. 23, 2024.
Jalloh was on probation, known as supervised release in the federal system, when he attacked Old Dominion on Thursday. Based on his release date, that would’ve run into 2029.
A probation officer visited Jalloh’s Sterling, Virginia, home every six months and was last there in November, according to a law enforcement affidavit filed Friday against a man charged with supplying a gun to Jalloh.
Confessions to undercover agents
Jalloh’s October 2016 plea came after a three-month sting operation in which he, then 26, confessed to an undercover FBI agent that he was thinking about carrying out an attack similar to the 2009 shootings at Fort Hood, which left 13 people dead. Authorities launched the 2016 operation after Jalloh made contact with members of the Islamic State group in Africa earlier that year.
Jalloh later told the informant that the Islamic State group had asked if he wanted to participate in an attack. He tried to donate $500 to the group, but the money actually went to an account controlled by the FBI, according to court documents.
Jalloh then tried to buy an AR-15 assault rifle from a Virginia gun store but was turned away because he lacked the proper paperwork. The affidavit says he returned the next day and bought a different assault rifle. Prosecutors said the rifle was rendered inoperable before Jalloh left the store, unbeknownst to Jalloh. He was arrested the following day.
Debate over sentencing
The Justice Department in 2017 requested a 20-year prison sentence for Jalloh, noting that he had made multiple attempts to join the Islamic State group and had attempted to acquire a gun to carry out a murder plot.
“The defendant was fully aware of what he was doing, and the consequences of those actions. His only misgivings seemed to be a fear that he would waver at the critical moment,†prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
They added: “By putting the idea of this murder plot into religious terms, and by suggesting that murdering members of the US military would be a path to heaven, the defendant showed how strongly committed he was to the deadly ideology†of the Islamic State group.
Jalloh’s lawyers asked for a sentence of 6 1/2 years in prison and requested that he be placed in a facility that provides residential drug treatment for inmates with addiction and substance abuse issues.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, sentenced him instead to 11 years in prison, with credit for time served in jail since his July 2016 arrest.
The judge also ordered Jalloh to participate in a program for substance abuse testing and treatment, mental health treatment, and requested that he be evaluated for the federal prison system’s residential drug program.
Completing the Residential Drug Abuse Program can reduce an inmate’s prison sentence by up to a year, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
In addition, some inmates who stay out of trouble in prison can reduce their sentence by earning up to 54 days of good conduct time credit for each year of their sentence. However, under the 2018 prison reform law known as the First Step Act, inmates convicted of terrorism-related offenses are not eligible for such credit.
Troubled shooter lured by radical cleric
Little is publicly known about Jalloh, who was a naturalized citizen from Sierra Leone. But court documents depict him as a troubled man who was radicalized by , a well-known American imam who became an al-Qaida propagandist.
The Virginia Army National Guard confirmed he served as a specialist from 2009 until 2015, when he was honorably discharged. Jalloh told a government informant he quit the National Guard after hearing lectures from al-Awlaki, according to a 2016 FBI affidavit filed in his criminal case.
In a letter to the federal judge that presided over his sentencing, Jalloh wrote: “I feel deep regret in having been driven by my emotions rather than my intellect and becoming involved with such an evil organization. … I reject and deplore terrorism and any groups associated with it, especially ISIL.â€
He wrote that he started using drugs after his girlfriend ended their six-year relationship.
“The pain I felt internally was unbearable, and drugs and alcohol were the only things that took that pain away,†Jalloh wrote. “I started doing marijuana, coke and mushrooms using one of them at least on a daily basis in order to kill the pain I was in and to fill in the void I felt internally.â€
The letter itself remains under seal, but his lawyer included excerpts of it in his sentencing memorandum.
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Riddle reported from Montgomery, Alabama. Associated Press reporter Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this report.
