RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) – The man who authorities say bought the assault rifles his friend used in the San Bernardino massacre was set for his second court appearance on a terrorism-related charge Monday.
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Marquez was indicted Thursday, charged with conspiring with Farook in 2011 and 2012 to commit crimes of terrorism. Prosecutors requested that Marquez remain held without bail for the safety of the community and because he is a serious flight risk. But the hearing ended quickly after Magistrate Judge David Bristow conferred privately with the defense and prosecution.
FILE – In this December 29, 2010 file photo, traffic jams up on the eastbound State Route 91 Freeway near Corona, Calif. According to a complaint filed in federal court, an area on this freeway was an alleged terrorist target of Syed Rizwan Farook, who led an assault that killed multiple people in San Bernardino, Calif., on December 2, 2015, and his friend Enrique Marquez.
“At this point the defendant has not yet rebutted the presumption that he is a danger to the community”, Bristow said. If convicted of all three charges, Marquez faces up to 35 years in prison.
Marquez and Farook laid out a plan to drop pipe bombs in the cafeteria at Riverside City College then stand on an elevated platform and shoot students as they fled, according to the Department of Justice.
Marquez, who had been working at a bar and a Walmart, had shuffled into court wearing a white jumpsuit, his legs and arms shackled and a chain around his waist.
“The defendant actively conspired with the decedent Mr. Farook for purposes of participating in a terrorist act in this nation”, Bristow said, adding that Marquez got two weapons under false pretenses and obtained smokeless powder that Farook used to create improvised explosive devices. Marquez, a former neighbor and longtime friend of Farook, was also charged with visa fraud stemming from his marriage to the sister of Farook’s older brother that prosecutors say was a sham.
To many people who knew him, Enrique Marquez was a quiet nerd who worked at Walmart and was a part-time security guard at a bar.
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Marquez moved in 2004 to Riverside, where he met Farook, his neighbor at the time. The next year, Farook introduced Marquez to Islam. The couple later died in a shootout with law enforcement. Sources said Marquez cooperated during their interviews.
