Florida man sentenced to 20 years for trying to help ISIS with bomb-making video

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A Florida man accused of wanting to help ISIS by demonstrating how to make and use an explosive, was sentenced to prison for 20 years.

Romeo Xavier Langhorne, 32, was charged with attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and was also sentenced Thursday to 15 years of supervised release, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Middle District of Florida.

“The willingness of this dangerous individual to go to great lengths to harm innocent Americans was always very real,” FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Sherri Onks said in the release. 

Langhorne pleaded guilty to the charge on May 13, 2021. But his interest in ISIS began drawing the attention of law enforcement years earlier, according to court records.

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Federal court documents say Langhorne pledged his allegiance to ISIS at some point in 2014, knowing that it was a designated foreign terrorist organization engaged in terrorism. He reaffirmed his support in 2018 and 2019 on various social media accounts and also posted terrorist group-produced videos to YouTube, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

In late 2018 and early 2019, while in an online chatroom, he said he wanted to create a video that would show how to make use of a deadly explosive, prosecutors said.

In 2019 Langhorne began communicating with an undercover FBI agent posing as someone working on behalf of ISIS, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. Langhorne told the agent he wanted help to create and post the instructional video. He also said the video should have disclaimers that it was intended for educational use so it would not be removed from social media.

Langhorne told the agent his true purpose with the video was to arm ISIS and others with knowledge of how to make bombs and use them for terrorism-related purposes, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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The FBI produced a video in accordance with Langhorne’s instructions but didn't tell Langhorne that the formula would never explode if made. In late 2019 the agent gave versions of the bomb-making video to Langhorne, who distributed it on a video-sharing website, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

He was living in St. Augustine, Florida, when he began providing instructions to the undercover agent, according to the complaint.

On April 9, he relocated to Virginia and was under surveillance by the FBI in Roanoke where his mother lived, according to the complaint. Langhorne was arrested on Nov. 15, 2019, at his residence in Virginia. 

"Langhorne admitted in a post-arrest interview that he had 'probably at some point' pledged allegiance to both ISIS and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was the leader of ISIS from 2014 until his death on Oct. 26, 2019. Langhorne admitted that he communicated with the (undercover agent) and that he uploaded the … video to the internet," according to the release. 

The FBI investigated the case with help from partners in the Northeast Florida Joint Terrorism Task Force and support from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Border Patrol and the St. Johns (Fla.) County Sheriff’s Office. 

“Due to the outstanding cooperation and coordination by our law enforcement partners, great harm to our community was prevented,” U.S. Attorney Roger Handberg said in the release. “I applaud the diligence of those who worked expeditiously to disrupt this threat to our public’s safety.”

In a sentencing memorandum filed June 27, a lawyer for Langhorne, John Leombruno, said Langhorne had untreated mental health issues including schizophrenia during the time he interacted with agents. Langhorne is also socially awkward, he said, and went online for "acceptance and importance."

Law enforcement targeted Langhorne, Leombruno said. "Acting in an undercover capacity, they initiated conversations with Mr. Langhorne and incited the production of a video that would inform individuals on how to make an explosive," he said. 

"To make certain that a prosecution of the defendant would occur, the government produced the actual video in question (and), circled back to Mr. Langhorne when the interactions and conversations between them grew cold," he said.

Contributing: The Florida Times-Union, including reporter Teresa Stepzinski; Mike Snider, Paste BN.