Suspect admits seeking 'South Park' deaths

A man from Brooklyn who admitted using his website to inspire homegrown terrorists pleaded guilty Thursday to charges he solicited the murder of writers for the "South Park" television show because it once depicted the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a bear costume.

Jesse Curtis Morton, 33, also known as Younus Abdullah Muhammed, faces a maximum of 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges in a Virginia federal court. Sentencing is set for May 18.

Morton was involved with the radical group Revolution Muslim, which used its website to inspire a number of other suspects to engage in terrorism, authorities said. They include Samir Khan, the former Long Island man who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen in September, and Jose Pimentel, who was accused last year of making pipe bombs to attack military personnel in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said.

As part of his plea agreement, Morton admitted that his group's website contributed to the radicalization of at least eight people, including Khan and Pimentel, according to Virginia federal court records. Morton pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, making threats against the "South Park" writers and using the Internet to put another person in fear of bodily harm, officials said.

"We may never know all of those who were inspired to engage in terrorism because of Revolution Muslim, but the string of recent terrorism cases with ties to Morton's organization demonstrates the threat it posed to our national security," Neil H. MacBride, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement Thursday.

"Morton was in our sights for some time because of the violence being promulgated by his group, culminating in conspiracy to solicit murder," NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement Thursday.

The "South Park" episode that angered Morton and other radical Muslims aired April 14, 2010, according to the original criminal complaint in the case. Morton and an associate, Zachary Chesser, posted a statement on their website that federal officials said were threatening toward the writers. The various drafts of the statement showed an intent to be threatening by mentioning Osama bin Laden and a Danish filmmaker who was assassinated in 2005 after making a film critical of Islam's treatment of women, the complaint stated.