Kansas man convicted of threatening to kill Republican congressman
A federal jury convicted a Kansas man who insisted that a death threat he made against Rep. Jake LaTurner was a message from God, amid what authorities have said is a sharp rise in threats against members of Congress and their families.
Jurors found Chase Neill, 32, of Lawrence, Kan., guilty of a single count of threatening a U.S. government official. The presiding judge instructed jurors that to find Neill guilty, they had to conclude that a reasonable person would believe he had made a true threat and intended to either intimidate LaTurner or interfere with his work as a Republican congressman representing eastern Kansas.
Neill acted as his own attorney and cross-examined LaTurner on the witness stand Wednesday. Neill testified Thursday that he had passed along a message from God threatening LaTurner for ignoring concerns about sorcery, wizards, extraterrestrials and a war for people’s souls.
Federal prosecutors said Neill fixated on LaTurner before leaving an after-hours voicemail June 5 at the congressman’s Topeka office that included the phrase “I will kill you.” LaTurner testified that he worried about the safety of his family and staff and beefed up security at his home and office.
“You cannot cloak yourself in religious belief and justify such a threat,” federal prosecutor Stephen Hunting said in his closing remarks. “There is a line you cannot cross.”
Neill sat calmly as U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter read the jury’s verdict, which came after about two hours of deliberation, and he declined to have the jury polled. As a marshal handcuffed him, his mother, Pamela Neill, who had watched the three-day trial, told him, “I love you.”
Teeter scheduled Neill’s sentencing for April 11. He could face 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
A failed Republican candidate has been arrested in connection with a series of shootings targeting Democratic lawmakers’ homes in Albuquerque.
The judge had Neill give his testimony Thursday as a narrative from the witness stand because he was representing himself.
Neill interrupted his comments to make sure documents were projected onto four screens on a wall behind him and to confer with the judge and prosecutors about what evidence would be allowed. Prosecutors did not cross-examine him.
Neill admitted in court that he left the June 5 voicemail and others with more death threats the next day. He said he was conveying a message that LaTurner and other officials faced death by an act of God, such as a tornado or hurricane, for attacking God’s creation.
“This is not me saying, ‘I’m going to chase you down with a knife,’ or something like that,” Neill said in his closing argument.
His mother, fighting back tears, told reporters upon leaving the courtroom, “He never raised a hand on anybody.”
Threats of violence on election day never materialized, thankfully. But that hasn’t stopped Americans from fearing what’s next during these polarized times.
Threats against members of Congress have increased since the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. In October, an intruder severely beat then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband with a hammer in their San Francisco home.
School board members and election workers across the nation also have endured harassment and threats. Police in Albuquerque this week arrested a failed Republican legislative candidate over a series of shootings targeting elected Democratic officials’ homes or offices.
Hunting told jurors it was reasonable for LaTurner and his staff to take Neill’s words seriously as threats.
LaTurner said in a statement after the verdict: “Violence and threats of violence have no place in our society.”
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Neill said his concerns about a war for souls were sparked by a May 13 story on the Kansas Reflector news site about a debate in which a western Kansas lawmaker urged colleagues to override Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a measure restricting public health officials’ power in epidemics. Republican state Rep. Tatum Lee was quoted as saying, “The war is real, you all. We are fighting for the soul of our nation.”
Neill told jurors he valued his soul and was required by God to act when he “heard the sound of the trumpet.” He showed jurors a LinkedIn page for himself, saying he dealt with “matters concerning over 400 million lives lost with high sorcery.”
If Americans don’t figure out how to make Washington responsive again, there’s no saying what could happen.
Neill testified that, in 2018, “God came to me very directly.” He did not elaborate.
A U.S. magistrate judge said in an August order refusing to release Neill from custody that Neill had suffered an injury, “characterized as a head fracture,” four or five years before.
But the trial judge concluded last month that Neill was capable of following what goes on in court and assisting his lawyers at the time, making him mentally competent to stand trial.
She granted his request to act as his own attorney, starting Wednesday.
“I’m really trying to explain how I interact with God, and it’s a difficult explanation,” Neill told jurors during his testimony Thursday. “I apologize.”
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