Ohio man charged with threatening to kill Vance, processing child abuse files
CBSN
An Ohio man was charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance while he was visiting his home state last month. But the man's lawyer said his health makes it unlikely he would have been able to carry out the threat. In:
An Ohio man was charged with threatening to kill Vice President JD Vance while he was visiting his home state last month. But the man's lawyer said his health makes it unlikely he would have been able to carry out the threat.
In addition to the charge for threatening Vance, prosecutors also charged Shannon Mathre with possessing digital files depicting child sexual abuse that were discovered during the investigation. That second charge carries a much stiffer potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison. The charge related to the threats could lead to a maximum five-year sentence.
Lawyer Neil McElroy said Mathre's health challenges would have been apparent to anyone in the courtroom Friday when he pleaded not guilty to the charges, so he doesn't think the threat charge makes sense. McElroy said he couldn't comment on the charge related to the possession of child sexual abuse files because prosecutors haven't yet provided any details about that at this early stage of the case.
"Anyone that spends any time in a room with Mr. Mathre or has any knowledge of his condition — physical condition, mental condition — can see that it's a farce," McElroy said. He declined to go into detail about Mathre's health challenges, but the lawyer said that Mathre has "some mental disabilities and a variety of other conditions."
Still, the Justice Department and Secret Service took the threat very seriously after Mathre said, "I am going to find out where he (the vice president) is going to be and use my M14 automatic gun and kill him."
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