Dylann Roof's friend gets more than 2 years for lying to FBI
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The only person with whom Dylann Roof shared his racist plot to massacre parishioners at a historic black church was sentenced today to more than two years in prison for hampering the investigation and lying to the FBI after the attack.
"I'm really, really sorry. A lot of beautiful lives were taken," 22-year-old Joey Meek told the court. He began to cry as he added: "I don't know if I'll make it out of prison alive. I'm scared."
Meek was handed 27 months behind bars by the same federal judge who presided over Roof's trial, which ended in January with the avowed white supremacist being sentenced to death for slaughtering nine people at Charleston's Emanuel AME church.
U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel said he hoped the sentence would serve as a deterrent to anyone else who learns of something so serious and fails to come forward. He added that Meek was fortunate another massacre didn't occur because of the delay in identifying Roof in the hours after the shooting rampage.
No family members of the victims spoke at sentencing.