Shannon Maureen Conley 's plan to join ISIS and serve as a nurse at a jihadist camp ended Wednesday with a guilty plea to a terror charge in a Colorado federal court . Conley , 19 , was arrested at Denver International Airport in April as she was about to embark on a journey to Germany and eventually to an ISIS camp near the Turkish border . She told investigators that she was going to Turkey to await word from her suitor , identified in court documents as Yousr Mouelhi , an ISIS member she met on the Internet , whom she planned to marry . Conley , a convert to Islam who wore a blue and white striped jail uniform and a traditional Muslim headscarf , appeared before a federal judge Wednesday and pleaded guilty to charge of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization . A certified nurse aide , Conley faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and up to a $ 250,000 fine . U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore set sentencing for January 23 and ordered that she have a psychiatric evaluation . As part of the plea agreement , Conley must provide law enforcement agencies with information about others looking to help terrorist organizations abroad . In a statement after the plea , Conley 's federal defender Robert Pepin referred to his client as Halima Shannon Conley . `` She 's also a 19-year-old woman of faith who was pursuing her faith and , unfortunately , as she pursued it she was led terribly astray , '' the statement said . `` That , in turn , led her to make some poor choices and she is now paying the price of those choices . '' Since her arrest , Pepin said , `` the news out of the part of the world to which she was headed has been just awful . '' `` Like all of us , Halima has been horrified to learn of the slaughter and oppression at the hands of the people controlling ISIS , '' Pepin said in the statement . `` It was never her vision to have any role in any of that . She would like everyone to know that her heart ... and her prayers go out to ... the families of those who have been killed , and to anyone who has been oppressed by those forces . Finally , Halima is fully aware that the fact that she was arrested may have very well saved her . '' Conley may not be the only American fighting alongside ISIS . More than 100 Americans have tried to join various militant groups in Syria , U.S. officials say . While some are aligned with ISIS , the fighters shift allegiance and it 's difficult to pin down a specific number , officials say . Douglas McAuthur McCain , a 33-year-old reared in Minnesota , died in a battle between rival extremist groups in the suburbs of Aleppo , Syria 's largest city , according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights , a British-based group that monitors the conflict . Attorney General Eric Holder estimated this summer that there are 7,000 foreign fighters in the war-ravaged Middle Eastern nation . McCain was not the first of these American militants to die in Syria . Islamists touted the role of a 22-year-old man -- identified by State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki as Moner Mohammad Abu-Salha , who grew up and went to school in Florida -- in a northern Syria suicide bombing conducted in coordination with al-Nusra Front earlier this year . In Colorado , Conley allegedly told FBI agents that she was going to be with a member of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria , or ISIS , that she had met online . She told federal agents she had read a book called `` Al-Qaida 's Doctrine for Insurgency '' and intended to wage jihad against the United States , according to the criminal complaint . When she was arrested , Conley had in her possession certification papers for first aid and nursing , the U.S. Army Explorers and the National Rifle Association , according to court documents . `` It 's a difficult time for us , '' her mother , Ana Conley , told CNN last month , when court documents in the case were unsealed . According to court papers , Conley 's parents were aware she had converted to Islam , but did not know about her interest in violent jihad . Her father , John , reportedly caught Shannon talking to her suitor , described as a 32-year-old Tunisian man , on Skype . Man arrested after overseas trip , accused of sympathizing with ISIS . The couple asked for the father 's blessing and he refused , the court papers said . On April 1 , John called FBI to report he had found plane ticket for later that month to Turkey . Her daughter was arrested on a jetway while trying to board a flight to Germany on April 8 , according to a criminal complaint . California man arrested , said he wanted to join ISIS . Conley first came to the attention of authorities after the pastor and the security director at a church in Arvada , Colorado , called police and said she was acting suspiciously . Authorities interviewed her seven times over the course of five months before arresting her at the airport . `` I think she realizes she made a terrible mistake , '' her mother told CNN . `` She was clueless . She 's just a teenager , young , with a big mouth . '' Opinion : When Americans leave for jihad .
Shannon Conley , 19 , pleads guilty to conspiracy to support foreign terrorist organization . Conley , arrested in April , revealed plan to join ISIS and serve as nurse at jihadist camp . She faces a maximum penalty of five years in federal prison and up to a $ 250,000 fine .