A 34-year-old Maryland man was sentenced to 2 years in jail after making violent threats towards an LGBTQ+ advocacy group after the Covenant School capturing final March in Nashville.
Adam Michael Nettina, of West Friendship, Maryland, admitted to leaving a threatening voicemail for the Human Rights Campaign in March. He entered right into a plea deal through which he additionally admitted to having left different threatening messages.
In addition to 2 years in jail, U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III sentenced Nettina to a few years of supervised launch.
“You have the right to your own opinions, but you don’t have the right to threaten the lives of those who disagree with you. As this case demonstrates, free speech does not include violent threats against others,” U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland mentioned in a Justice Department assertion Thursday. “We’ll continue prosecuting these threats to the fullest extent of the law.”
Nettina’s voicemail to HRC was recorded the day after the March 27 Covenant School capturing through which six individuals had been killed, together with three 9-year-olds. Police fatally shot the gunman, a 28-year-old trans man.
“You guys going to shoot up our schools now? Is that how it’s going to be? You just gonna kill little kids?” Nettina mentioned within the voicemail, in line with WUSA-TV in Washington, D.C. “Let me tell you something, we’re waiting, we’re waiting. And if you want a war, we’ll have a war. And we’ll fucking slaughter you back. We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head. We’re not going to give a fuck. You started this bullshit. You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you 10 times more in full.”
Nettina agreed that his actions had been identifiable as a hate crime and as a part of his plea deal admitted to leaving threatening messages for Maryland and Virginia state delegates, in line with WUSA. The two delegates publicly supported the LGBTQ+ neighborhood.
“You are a terrorist. You deserve to be shot and hung in the streets. You want to come after people? Let’s go bitch,” Nettina wrote in an e mail to a Virginia state delegate in October 2022, in line with the Justice Department.
The following month, Nettina despatched a social media message through which he referred to as a Maryland state delegate a “Baby killing terrorist,” in line with the Justice Department.
“Enjoy hell… You’re going sooner than you think,” Nettina mentioned within the message.
