In Waco, a federal grand jury yesterday afternoon indicted a Dripping Springs man for allegedly making threats to kill individuals on Fort Hood last month announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division.
The indictment charges 28-year-old Thomas Anthony Chestnut with one count of interstate communications with threat to injure. Upon conviction, Chestnut faces up to five years in federal prison.
According to court records, on February 22, 2017, Chestnut made verbal threats when he called and spoke with a sergeant at the US Army 1st Calvary Division at Fort Hood. Chestnut threatened to go to Fort Hood, kill the sergeant, take hostages, start a mass killing spree and then kill himself if he was not allowed to speak with someone of rank. Chestnut then spoke with a major and advised that he was a former soldier wrongly accused of a crime and eventually released from prison in 2016. Chestnut further advised if he was unable to speak with a U.S. Army III Corps Commander or a Sergeant Major regarding back pay, or did not receive the money he believed was owed to him, that he planned to shoot soldiers on Fort Hood.
“Threats of this nature are taken seriously,” stated United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr.
FBI agents arrested Chestnut without incident on February 24, 2017. He has remained in federal custody since. A detention hearing for Chestnut is scheduled for 1:30pm on March 22, 2017, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey C. Manske in Waco.
This investigation is being conducted by the FBI together with the U.S. Army Military Police Investigations at Fort Hood and the Hays County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Gloff and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney/Active Duty U.S. Army Captain J. Patrick Robinson are prosecuting this case on behalf of the government.
An indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.