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Adam Michael Nettina, 34, of West Friendship, was sentenced to two years in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release after admitting to making threats and sending messages to Maryland and Virginia state delegates who made statements in support of transgender people following the mass shooting in Nashville last March.
Specifically, Nettina targeted the Washington, DC-based Human Rights Campaign, federal prosecutors said.
“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," US Attorney Erek Barron said. "As this case demonstrates, free speech does not include violent threats against others.
“We’ll continue prosecuting these threats to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to court documents, on Tuesday, March 28 last year, the organization received a threatening voicemail from a number that was traced back to Nettina in Howard County.
The message referenced the mass shooting at a school in Nashville the previous day, where the gunman was identified as being transgender shooter that killed six people, including three children.
“You guys going to shoot up our schools now? Is that how it’s going to be? You just gonna to kill little kids,” the caller said in the message, according to the affidavit. “You’re just going to slaughter (expletive) little kids. Let me tell you something, we’re waiting.
“And if you want a war, we’ll have a war. And we’ll (expletives) slaughter you back. We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head,” it continued. “You started this. You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.”
Nettina admitted that he left this voicemail for the purpose of issuing a threat and with the knowledge that the voicemail would be viewed as such.
Further, Nettina intentionally selected the advocacy organization as a target of his message "because of the actual and perceived gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation of the people who work at and are assisted by the organization," prosecutors said.
“Bias-motivated threats of violence terrorize entire communities and have no place in our society,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said.
Investigators were able to trace the call back to Wynfield Road in West Friendship, leading them to identify Nettina as a suspect. He was surveilled for several days and ultimately apprehended on Friday, March 31 last year.
He was later linked to social media posts targeting officials who celebrated "Trans Day of Visibility" online in 2022.
In October 2022, when an online story was published about an interview with a Virginia State delegate, where she advocated for the prevention of abuse against trans children, Nettina also reached out to the press office with disparaging words.
Prosecutors say that he sent an emails two days after the report came out stating that "The delegate is a terrorist. You are a terrorist. You deserve to be shot and hung in the streets. You want to come after people? Let’s go b**ch.”
Nettina also sent a similar message to another email address of the delegate two minutes later.
Officials said that he "intentionally selected the delegate and her campaign staff as the recipient of his email because of the actual and perceived gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation of the people and constituents for whom the delegate had expressed support."
“(Nettina) targeted and threatened members of the LGBTQI+ community and their allies, instilling fear and promoting violence toward a heavily targeted community,” Clarke added.
“This sentence underscores the Justice Department’s commitment to combating threats against public officials and protected communities," she added. "We will work tirelessly to expunge the growing threat posed by bias-motivated acts of violence directed at the LGBTQI+ community and their allies.”
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