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Texan, 19, will spend seven months in prison
By Karen AbbottDenver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer
A 19-year-old Houston man was sentenced to seven months in federal prison Friday for mailing threats to Columbine High School and Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone. Denver U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock also ordered Arthur Leon Thomas to spend three years on probation, seven months of which must be spent in home detention with no Internet access. Thomas pleaded guilty to mailing a threat to Columbine High that said, "Death for Columbine ... Die ColumBine Die im in The School Tri and Find me im The ghost oF eric Harris ... " He also pleaded guilty to mailing a threat to Stone that said, "You're next." Thomas mailed the threats last fall, about six months after Columbine students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attacked their school. They killed 13 people and injured more than 20 before taking their own lives. In exchange for the guilty pleas, federal prosecutors dropped a third charge that Thomas sent an e-mail threat to a Broomfield woman who knew Harris. Thomas was the second person to plead guilty in Colorado's federal court to making threats involving Columbine. Another teen, Michael Ian Campbell of Florida, was sentenced in April to four months in prison for e-mailing a threat to a Columbine student just before Christmas 1999. That threat prompted school officials to close the school early for the holiday. Campbell is to be released Monday from a federal minimum-security facility in Florida. August 19, 2000
A 19-year-old Houston man was sentenced to seven months in federal prison Friday for mailing threats to Columbine High School and Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone.
Denver U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock also ordered Arthur Leon Thomas to spend three years on probation, seven months of which must be spent in home detention with no Internet access.
Thomas pleaded guilty to mailing a threat to Columbine High that said, "Death for Columbine ... Die ColumBine Die im in The School Tri and Find me im The ghost oF eric Harris ... "
He also pleaded guilty to mailing a threat to Stone that said, "You're next."
Thomas mailed the threats last fall, about six months after Columbine students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attacked their school. They killed 13 people and injured more than 20 before taking their own lives.
In exchange for the guilty pleas, federal prosecutors dropped a third charge that Thomas sent an e-mail threat to a Broomfield woman who knew Harris.
Thomas was the second person to plead guilty in Colorado's federal court to making threats involving Columbine.
Another teen, Michael Ian Campbell of Florida, was sentenced in April to four months in prison for e-mailing a threat to a Columbine student just before Christmas 1999. That threat prompted school officials to close the school early for the holiday.
Campbell is to be released Monday from a federal minimum-security facility in Florida.
August 19, 2000
