Heather Elizabeth Coffman, ISIS Support, Virginia 2015

A Glen Allen woman has been sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for her role in an international terrorism investigation. Heather Elizabeth Coffman, 29, was sentenced to 54 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for making false statements in an investigation into her attempted support of the international terrorist group ISIS.

Coffman pleaded guilty to a one-count criminal information on January 30, 2015. According to the statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Coffman admitted to using several Facebook accounts under different names to show her support for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL, referred to as ISIS by the defendant and within the case) cause.

Coffman also admitted to cultivating online relationships with individuals she believed were ISIS facilitators operating in Syria. She put her romantic interest, N.A., in contact with a facilitator to assist with his travel and eventual training with ISIS. This plan was moving forward when the couple’s relationship deteriorated in early September 2014, and N.A. backed out of the plans.

Coffman later communicated with others about her disappointment and expressed how she wished that the plan had succeeded. However, she lied during the ongoing investigation on November 13, 2014, when she told FBI agents that she did not know whether N.A. had talked to anybody else who supported ISIS, and that she did not know anybody N.A. had talked to.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Richmond Field Office and the Richmond Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF), a collection of state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies dedicated to thwarting national security and terrorism issues.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael Gill and Jessica Aber of the Eastern District of Virginia, and Trial Attorney Annamartine Salick of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

A copy of the press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 3:15-cr-016.

The Richmond JTTF includes Virginia State Police, Henrico County Police, Chesterfield County Police, Richmond Police, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Secret Service, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, and Explosives, Department of State Diplomatic Security Service, Transportation Security Administration, and Defense Criminal Investigative Service.

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