Maryland Man Pleads Guilty to Issuing Threats of Violence to an LGBTQI+ Advocacy Group

A Maryland man pleaded guilty in a U.S. District Court in Baltimore to a federal crime for using a telephone to threaten a group that advocates for LGBTQI+ people.

According to court documents, on the evening of March 28, the victim organization received a threatening voicemail from Adam Michael Nettina, 34, of West Friendship. The message referenced a mass shooting that had happened the day before at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, involving multiple shooting fatalities, where the perpetrator was a transgender woman. During the call to the advocacy organization on March 28, Nettina made multiple threats, including, “…We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head….You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.”

Nettina admitted to leaving the threatening voicemail and to targeting his victims because of their actual and perceived gender, gender identity and sexual orientation.

“Bias-motivated threats of violence terrorize entire communities and have no place in our society,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “We will not stand by idly when the LGBTQI+ community faces bias-motivated threats of violence. The Justice Department will continue to investigate and prosecute individuals who commit unlawful acts of hate in our country.”

Read more: Department of Justice