NEWBURGH (New York) - THE four men accused of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues and shoot down military airplanes with missiles are down-and-out ex-convicts living on the margins in a faded industrial city.
One is a petty criminal who spent a day in 2002 snatching purses and shooting at people with an airgun from a vehicle. His lawyer calls him 'intellectually challenged.'
Three have histories of drug convictions, one of them for selling narcotics in a school zone.
The man prosecutors portrayed as the instigator of the scheme said he smoked pot the day he planned to blow up the temples.
Relatives said the defendants were struggling men who worked at places such as Wal-Mart, a landscaping company and a warehouse when they weren't behind bars.
Payen's lawyer said he was on medication for schizophrenia and has 'a very low borderline' IQ.
David Williams' relatives were floored by the allegations against a man they knew as a good father to his 7-year-old daughter and newborn son.
'You don't raise your children to be terrorists,' said Aahkiyaah Cummings, his aunt. 'I don't know that guy that was arrested.'
Onta Williams, 32, and Cromitie have also served prison sentences for drug convictions - Cromitie said in court he had used marijuana as recently as Wednesday.
He said he was 55, though law enforcement records give his age as 44.
Payen, 27, did time for attempted assault - in 2002, he and others fired an airgun out a sport utility vehicle window, hitting two people in the head.
He snatched purses from two women later the same day, said state Division of Parole spokeswoman Heather Groll. -- AP
