Sears Tower plotter gets 13 1/2 years

MIAMI, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- The man authorities say led a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago was sentenced Friday in Miami to 13 1/2 years in federal prison.

Prosecutors had wanted to see Narseal Batiste sent away for 70 years but U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard appeared to take into account the plot never developed beyond the talking stage, WLS-TV, Chicago, reported.

After two mistrials, Batiste, 35, and four co-defendants in their 20s and 30s were convicted in May of supporting terrorism, conspiring to wage war on the United States and other charges. The other four were given prison terms this week of 7-9 years.

Two other defendants were acquitted in the 2006 plot to take down the 110-story skyscraper, since renamed the Willis Tower.

In sentencing Batiste's underlings Wednesday and Thursday, Lenard indicated she saw reason for not imposing the most severe sentence possible for the so-called Liberty City Seven.

"As I see this case, these young men were looking for something," she said. "I don't know, maybe it was their naivete and youth that made them fall under the influence of a man with a need to control, and they became his followers."