Sentencing delayed for Phoenix man convicted in Muhammad cartoon attack

PHOENIX - Sentencing was delayed for the Phoenix man accused of helping plan an attack at a Prophet Mohammed drawing contest in May 2015.

Defense attorneys say newly released evidence may cast doubt on Abdul Malik Kareem's conviction.

Kareem's attorney says the new evidence may help show that his client had little to do with planning the attack at the contest.

In their motion, Kareem's defense claims the evidence is 850 pages of Twitter communications, primarily about the Texas attack between an undercover FBI agent, attacker Elton Simpson and another man, Erick Jamal Hendricks, who was recently indicted on terror charges in North Carolina.

Attorneys claim that the undercover agent and Hendricks were even communicating about the Garland, Texas attack in the days leading up to it and that information may have been pssed along to Simpson, who tried to carry out the attack with another man, Nadir Soofi. Both were killed by an off-duty police officer.

The 850 pages were kept classified and not given to Kareem's defense attorney until recently and he wants more time to look over them.

He told the judge on Tuesdsay, "The more I can show that my client wasn't involved because he wasn't mentioned in the communications... That is evidence I should have had beforehand."

The judge rescheduled sentencing for early January, but depending on what defense attorneys find in that new evidence, they may also be asking for a new trial.