A federal criminal complaint has been filed charging a Maryland man for using the telephone to threaten a group that advocates for LGBTQ individuals.
According to court documents, on the evening of March 28, the victim organization identified as the Human Rights Campaign in the criminal complaint received a threatening voicemail from a phone number that investigators identified as belonging to Adam Michael Nettina, 34, of West Friendship, Maryland. The message referenced the March 27 mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, involving multiple shooting fatalities, where the perpetrator was publicly identified as being transgender. During the call, numerous threats were made including, “…We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head….You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.”
Nettina had an initial appearance yesterday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Maddox.
If convicted, Nettina faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for interstate communications with a threat to injure. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron for the District of Maryland and Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the FBI Baltimore Field Office made the announcement.
The FBI Baltimore Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul E. Budlow for the District of Maryland and Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.
Read more at the Justice Department
