A 21-year-old Castle Rock man pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization, admitting he tried to leave the country in 2023 to fight for ISIS. Davin Daniel Meyer entered the plea in Denver federal court before U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney, closing out the guilt phase of a case that began three years ago at Denver International Airport.
Meyer, who was 18 at the time of his arrest, was taken into custody on July 14, 2023, as he tried to board an international flight bound for Turkey, with plans to continue to Iraq to serve as an ISIS fighter, according to federal law enforcement filings relayed by the U.S. Department of Justice. He had pledged an oath of allegiance to the leader of ISIS before attempting his departure, the Justice Department's filings state. As reported by Courthouse News, Meyer had dropped out of school in the 10th grade and was working part-time at a feed store in the months before his arrest.
Months of Undercover Contact Before the Airport Arrest
In the lead-up to his attempted departure, Meyer believed he was being recruited online by actual ISIS members, but he was in fact communicating with an FBI informant and met three separate times in person with an FBI operative, per the same Courthouse News account. That undercover contact gave federal investigators a window into his plans well before he ever reached the airport.
Warning signs had surfaced even earlier. When Meyer was 17, an acquaintance reported him to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office for making violent threats, including statements that he wanted to travel to Syria to become a martyr or, if he could not travel, to kill U.S. police and military personnel, according to court documents cited by Missoula Current. The outlet reported that Meyer made those statements after expressing radical Islamic beliefs to people around him, well before federal agents ever got involved.
Mental Health Diagnoses Cited in Court Records
Federal court records cited by Missoula Current showed Meyer had been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, anxiety, and depression, and that he had refused prescribed psychiatric medication because he believed taking it violated his religious faith. His defense filings noted those mental health challenges during the early stages of the case, the outlet reported.
Meyer now faces sentencing before Judge Sweeney at a later date. The single count under 18 U.S.C. § 2339B carries a maximum statutory penalty of up to 20 years in federal prison, Courthouse News reports. CBS News Colorado was first to report on the guilty plea.
Not the First DIA Interception
Meyer's case fits a pattern of federal counterterrorism arrests centered on Denver International Airport. In April, 20-year-old Westminster resident Humzah Mashkoor was sentenced to 36 months in prison after pleading guilty to terrorism financing following his arrest at the same airport in December 2023, when he was also 18 and attempting to join ISIS, according to Courthouse News. And the practice goes back over a decade: in September 2014, 19-year-old Arvada resident Shannon Conley pleaded guilty in Denver federal court to conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization after she was arrested at DIA while trying to fly to Syria to join ISIS, the FBI announced at the time. Conley was among the earliest U.S. citizens prosecuted for attempting to join ISIS abroad.
The pattern extends beyond Colorado. In July, three men from New Jersey and Washington pleaded guilty in federal court after communicating through encrypted apps to plot joint travel through Turkey to Syria to serve as ISIS fighters, with one co-conspirator providing financial aid while others planned the transit, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Meyer's guilty plea also arrives as the conflict zone he once hoped to reach is undergoing its own transformation. The United States military is carrying out a full withdrawal of remaining forces from Iraq scheduled for completion by September 30, concluding a 12-year counter-ISIS mission that began in 2014, Hoodline previously reported. U.S. coalition forces liberated more than 40,000 square miles once held by ISIS during that mission.
What sentence prosecutors will ultimately seek for Meyer remains unresolved, with the case now moving toward a sentencing hearing before Judge Sweeney.
