A 34-year-old Maryland man was sentenced to two years in prison after making violent threats toward an LGBTQ+ advocacy group after the Covenant School shooting last 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 into a plea deal in which he also admitted to having left other threatening messages.
In addition to two years in prison, U.S. District Judge George L. Russell III sentenced Nettina to three years of supervised release.
“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 said in a Justice Department statement 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 shooting in which six people were killed, including 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 said in the voicemail, according to 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 were identifiable as a hate crime and as part of his plea deal admitted to leaving threatening messages for Maryland and Virginia state delegates, according to WUSA. The two delegates publicly supported the LGBTQ+ community.
“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 email to a Virginia state delegate in October 2022, according to the Justice Department.
The following month, Nettina sent a social media message in which he called a Maryland state delegate a “Baby killing terrorist,” according to the Justice Department.
“Enjoy hell… You’re going sooner than you think,” Nettina said in the message.