Current:Home > ScamsArizona man seeks dismissal of charge over online post after deadly attack in Australia -DataFinance
Arizona man seeks dismissal of charge over online post after deadly attack in Australia
View
Date:2025-04-18 23:49:16
PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona man is asking a U.S. court to dismiss a charge of making threatening online comments toward law enforcement days after participating in an online exchange with people who had carried out a deadly attack in Australia.
A lawyer for Donald Day Jr. of Heber, Arizona, said in a filing Tuesday that the two counts of interstate threats against his client should be thrown out because the indictment doesn’t allege that Day made statements of intent to harm any specific person.
Mark Rumold, who represents Day, also said Day’s online comments were not serious expressions of an intent to carry out violence and instead were protected speech under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, which is prosecuting Day, declined to comment Thursday on the dismissal request.
Six people were killed in the attack in Australia in the rural community of Wieambilla on Dec. 12, 2022, investigators said. Two Queensland state police officers and a bystander were fatally shot by Gareth Train, his brother Nathaniel Train and Nathaniel’s wife, Stacey Train, in an ambush at the Trains’ remote property.
Officers went to the property to investigate reports of a missing person. Police killed the three Trains, who have been described as conspiracy theorists, during the six-hour siege. Police described it as a religiously motivated attack.
Gareth Train began following Day on YouTube in May 2020. A year later, they were communicating directly.
Day, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges in Arizona, is now jailed while he awaits trial after a judge concluded he poses a danger to the community and could flee from authorities.
The indictment issued in late November alleged Day had “engaged in a course of conduct demonstrating a desire to incite violence and threaten a variety of groups and individuals including law enforcement and government authorities” from the beginning of 2022 until February 2023.
Prosecutors said in the indictment that Day made comments in response to a video posted by two of the people who had killed the officers in Australia and said “if you don’t defend yourself against these devils and demons, you’re a coward.” The video was posted after the killings.
In his post, Day said he wished he could have been there with them and profanely said “that those bastards will regret that they ever” messed with them. Four days later, Day posted a video in which he said two of the people who carried out the violence against the officers did what they had to do because they would not submit “to a monster, to an unlawful entity, to a demonic entity.”
Day’s attorney said the charges against his client should be dismissed because neither involves a threat to a “natural person” or alleges a “true threat.”
In one count, Day is accused of making threats four days after the killings in Australia to injure any law enforcement official who would come to Day’s home in eastern Arizona, about 145 miles (233 kilometers) miles from Phoenix. Rumold wrote that it was impossible to determine whether Day was threatening any particular person when he wrote that “the devils (who) come for us” will die.
On the other count, Day is accused of making online threats in 2023 to injure a person whose full identity isn’t provided in the indictment, though Day’s attorney said that person was Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization. Rumold disputed that Day’s comments about the WHO official can be classified as “true threats” as a matter of law.
veryGood! (2)
Related
- Bill Belichick's salary at North Carolina: School releases football coach's contract details
- Apalachee football team plays first game since losing coach in deadly school shooting
- Daniel Radcliffe Details Meeting Harry Potter Costar Maggie Smith in Moving Tribute
- Top election official in Nevada county that is key to the presidential race takes stress leave
- Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
- Trees down: Augusta National 'assessing the effects' of Hurricane Helene
- Will Taylor Swift go to Chiefs-Chargers game in Los Angeles? What we know
- Opinion: The US dollar's winning streak is ending. What does that mean for you?
- Tarte Shape Tape Concealer Sells Once Every 4 Seconds: Get 50% Off Before It's Gone
- In 'Defectors,' journalist Paola Ramos explores the effects of Trumpism on the Latino vote
Ranking
- What to watch: O Jolie night
- 'Still floating': Florida boaters ride out Hurricane Helene
- Ohio’s fall redistricting issue sparked a fight over one word. So what is ‘gerrymandering,’ anyway?
- Georgia-Alabama leads Top 25 matchups leading seven college football games to watch in Week 5
- Federal court filings allege official committed perjury in lawsuit tied to Louisiana grain terminal
- Ohio’s fall redistricting issue sparked a fight over one word. So what is ‘gerrymandering,’ anyway?
- Joliet, Illinois, Plans to Source Its Future Drinking Water From Lake Michigan. Will Other Cities Follow?
- Latest talks between Boeing and its striking machinists break off without progress, union says
Recommendation
Will the 'Yellowstone' finale be the last episode? What we know about Season 6, spinoffs
Chappell Roan drops out of All Things Go music festival: ‘Things have gotten overwhelming’
Woman loses over 700 pounds of bologna after Texas border inspection
People are supporting 'book sanctuaries' despite politics: 'No one wants to be censored'
The Grammy nominee you need to hear: Esperanza Spalding
Kristin Cavallari and Mark Estes Break Up After 7 Months
Latest talks between Boeing and its striking machinists break off without progress, union says
Asheville has been largely cut off after Helene wrecked roads and knocked out power and cell service