Mark Schmitz stood in a federal courtroom Wednesday and faced the man prosecutors tied to the terrorist network that killed his 20-year-old son at Abbey Gate.
Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz was one of 13 American service members murdered on Aug. 26, 2021, during the disastrous evacuation from Afghanistan. His father told Mohammad Sharifullah, "A bomb killed my son. It did not kill what he stood for."
From the Associated Press:
A federal jury in Virginia had convicted Mohammad Sharifullah in April of providing material support to the IS affiliate known as ISIS-K. But jurors could not agree whether he bore some responsibility for the airport bombing on Aug. 26, 2021.
U.S. troops were conducting an evacuation operation at the airport when a lone suicide bomber detonated an improvised explosive device near an entry point known as Abbey Gate. Sharifullah’s role in the attack was scouting a route to Hamid Karzai International Airport, prosecutors said.
Sharifullah, 28, received the maximum sentence for his one-count conviction in an international terrorism case that President Donald Trump heralded last year during a speech to a joint session of Congress.
Then-U.S. District Judge Anthony Trenga sentenced Sharifullah to 20 years in federal prison. For families who have carried Abbey Gate for five years, 20 years can sound painfully small.
The judge couldn't give him another day.
A federal jury convicted Sharifullah in April of participating in a nine-year conspiracy to provide material support to ISIS-K. Prosecutors proved he was no casual associate. Evidence showed that ISIS-K leadership sent him to scout a route toward Kabul's airport on the day of the Abbey Gate attack. He checked for Taliban checkpoints and reported back that the route was clear.
Hours later, ISIS-K suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated his explosives at Abbey Gate.
Sharifullah's record went much further.
Federal prosecutors said he participated in more than a dozen ISIS-K attacks between 2016 and his capture in 2025. He conducted surveillance before another suicide bombing in Kabul, transported a bomber toward the attack site, handled weapons, carried messages, and filmed explosions for terrorist propaganda.
So why only 20 years?
Because the law drew a line the jury wouldn't cross.
Under federal law, providing material support to a designated terrorist organization carries a maximum sentence of 20 years. If a death results from the crime, the sentencing range can reach life.
Prosecutors asked jurors to find that deaths resulted from Sharifullah's conspiracy.
They couldn't agree.
The jury convicted him of supporting ISIS-K but deadlocked on whether the government had proved the additional connection necessary to expose him to life imprisonment. Sharifullah's lawyers argued that prosecutors had not independently shown his scouting caused or contributed to the Abbey Gate bombing and challenged statements he made to FBI investigators.
From the Associated Press:
Prosecutors said in their sentencing memo that “from his teenage years, when he pledged an oath of allegiance to ISIS-K, Sharifullah’s carnage was driven by hate. Hate towards Americans.”
Jurors convicted Sharifullah of providing material support to ISIS-K. They deadlocked on whether any deaths at the airport “resulted from” that conspiracy. Sharifullah could have faced a possible life sentence if the jury had unanimously decided that question.
According to prosecutors, Sharifullah told a journalist that he wanted to “catch and kill the crusaders” from the United States for invading his country after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. They said Sharifullah was involved in dozens of other attacks, including a March 2024 assault on a Moscow concert hall that killed roughly 140 people.
So Trenga imposed the maximum punishment available for the verdict he actually had.
Twenty years wasn't mercy. It wasn't a judge deciding a terrorist deserved leniency. It was the ceiling Congress placed on the crime the jury unanimously found beyond a reasonable doubt.
There is something deeply unsatisfying about that answer when 13 American families can still name the empty chair every Thanksgiving and Christmas.
But criminal justice can't change its burden of proof because the defendant is despicable or because the consequences are heartbreaking. If prosecutors want the punishment attached to causing deaths, they still have to prove the facts necessary to get there.
Sharifullah will spend the next two decades in federal prison.
For the families of Jared Schmitz and the other 12 Americans killed at Abbey Gate, no number of years can restore what was taken.
The law gave the judge 20. He gave him all 20.