DENVER — Davin Daniel Meyer, the Castle Rock 18-year-old accused of trying to join ISIS and provide support to the terrorist organization, will stay behind bars as his case goes through the courts, despite his mother asking the judge to let him stay with her.
Deanna Meyer spoke as a witness at Denver's federal courthouse on Thursday morning and said she was the one who reported her son to law enforcement because she was worried about his radical ideologies.
But she said she was seeking mental health help for him, and at first she said she got it from a community response team in Douglas County. Then the FBI got involved.
Meyer said law enforcement told her "they had tactics to wake him up" from his more radical beliefs, but she never knew about the FBI agents communicating with him, pretending to be ISIS facilitators.
"If I did, you would have heard from me," she said on the stand.
The arrest affidavit details Davin Meyer's conversations with two "FBI Confidential Human Sources" and how he told them his intentions were to travel to the Middle East to fight for ISIS.
The affidavit also details his struggle with mental health over the years.
Davin Meyer eventually bought a flight to Turkey, and on July 14, he was about to board the plane when he was arrested and taken into federal custody.
The prosecution said after his arrest that they searched his apartment and found a letter to his mom telling her he had no intention of returning and asking her to "open her heart to Islam."
When the judge asked his mother how Davin Meyer's autism manifests in him, she said he doesn't have the motivation to follow through on things and he never really had friends.
"I would bet my life on it, he would have never done that without the encouragement," she said.
The prosecuting attorney said Davin Meyer was in contact with people other than agents, specifically an individual with known terrorist ties in the UK, who was also recently arrested.
The prosecutor added that the FBI agents pretending to be ISIS facilitators did not encourage Meyer and gave him outs.
To that, Meyer and his attorney silently laughed.
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