Court Watching: Shawn Fix of Sumpter pleads guilty in plot to kidnap governor

BELLAIRE, MI – Shawn Fix of Sumpter Township pled guilty on June 7 to aiding a plot to kidnap Michigan’s governor. This was in Antrim County 13th Circuit Court.
The proceedings are taking place in Antrim County because that’s where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Elk Rapids vacation home is located and prosecutors say the abduction was to take place.
He accepted a deal from the state which included a guilty plea of one felony count of providing material support to a terrorist act and an agreement to testify truthfully against his co-defendants at their upcoming August trial if asked to do so.
In exchange, the state dismissed a felony firearm charge.
Fix now faces up to 20 years in prison and sentencing will be set later this summer.
This is the ninth conviction in state and federal courts since agents broke up the scheme. Informants and undercover FBI agents were inside the group for months, leading to the arrests in October 2020. Whitmer was not physically harmed.
Fix trained with a militia, the Wolverine Watchmen, for “politically motivated violence,” prosecutors have said. They said Fix hosted a five-hour meeting at his Sumpter Township home where there was much discussion about kidnapping Whitmer.
Fix acknowledged helping plot leader Adam Fox pinpoint the location of Whitmer’s home, key information that was used for a 2020 ride to find the property in northern Michigan.
He remains out on bond, as do all his fellow defendants. Their tethers were removed earlier this year.