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2021-11-20 06:03:40
By Ravi Kumar Image Source: Screen Shot
An Arizona man who left a message telling House Speaker Nancy Pelosi “I’m coming to kill you," was convicted Thursday, federal prosecutors said.
Steven Arthur Martis, 77, was found guilty this week of leaving threatening messages for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi a week after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
Martis of Bullhead City was found guilty on Thursday of communicating an interstate threat to kill the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office of Arizona, Martis left two voicemails at Pelosi's office in Washington D.C. on Jan. 17, 11 days after the Capitol building was overrun with rioters attempting to reverse the results of the 2020 election.
Martis said, "I'm going to kill you," in one voicemail message and "You're dead..." in another. Martis had been previously warned by the FBI to stop making threatening phone calls, prosecutors said.
About a year earlier, the FBI had interviewed Martis about a different message to another member of Congress and warned him that conduct is against the law, an affidavit filed in the case says.
Online court records show that the jury was deadlocked on two other counts, a mistrial was declared and that a new trial date was set for those charges in January.
Martis' attorney, Dave Eisenberg, said Martis will be retried on those counts after the jury did not come to a unanimous verdict. Sentencing is set for January. The maximum sentence on the count is five years in prison, Eisenberg said. Eisenberg said he will advocate that Martis, who has been held since his February arrest, is sentenced to time served.
In a different case involving threats to elected officials, a 52-year-old Laramie, Wyoming, man was sentenced to 1 1/2 years in prison for making threats to two Republican members of Congress and a state senator, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Christopher Kent Podlesnik pleaded guilty in August to four counts of transmitting threats in interstate commerce and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine Nov. 5, according to court records.
He pleaded guilty to counts that he made threats to U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming; U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Florida; and Wyoming State Sen. Anthony Bouchard, also a Republican, according to court documents. A jury found Martis guilty this week and the defendant is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 25, 2022.
“This case is an important reminder that, although the First Amendment protects our right to free speech, which is one of our most precious individual rights, the United States Attorney’s Office takes threats to kill or harm another individual through a phone call or other form of interstate communication very seriously,” said Acting United States Attorney Glenn B. McCormick.
Over the last year, several individuals have been arrested for allegedly making death threats against Pelosi and President Joe Biden.
A 22-year-old Michigan man was sentenced last month in court for writing online posts about wanting to kill elected officials in order to start an American revolution.
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