Kentucky man pleads guilty to posting poem on website threatening Obama with assassination
By Brett Barrouquere, APTuesday, July 6, 2010
Ky. man pleads guilty to threatening Obama in poem
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky man has pleaded guilty to writing and posting on a white supremacist website a poem threatening the assassination of President Barack Obama.
Johnny Logan Spencer Jr. of Louisville entered an open plea — admitting guilt without a deal with prosecutors — Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Louisville.
The 28-year-old Spencer’s sentencing is set for Nov. 2. The charge carries a maximum of five years in federal prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release.
U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Stephan M. Pazenzia said in an affidavit that Spencer wrote and posted the poem, titled “The Sniper,” on a page called NewSaxon.org.
The poem describes a gunman shooting and killing a “tyrant” later identified as the president, setting off panic.