Teen Indicted for Columbine Threat

12:52 AM ET 01/11/00
By P. SOLOMON BANDA, AP

DENVER (AP) - A federal grand jury on Monday indicted a Florida teen-ager accused of sending a computer threat that shut down Columbine High School for two days and Texas man who made unrelated threats in September.

Michael Ian Campbell, 18, of Cape Coral, Fla., faces one count of sending threatening communication over interstate commerce, said Jeff Dorschner, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney. The charge carries a penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is free on bail and due in court Tuesday.

Campbell was accused of using the screen name ``Soup 81'' to send an instant message on Dec. 15 to Columbine sophomore Erin J. Walton, saying he was going to ``finish what begun.''

According the indictment, Campbell told Walton not to go to school because, ``if you go I don't want your blood on my hands.'' Columbine students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed 12 students and a teacher on April 20 before killing themselves in one of the nation's worst school shootings.

Prosecutors also said that Arthur Leon Thomas, 18, of Houston, was indicted on three counts of sending threatening messages. Thomas allegedly sent threatening letters to Columbine High School and to Jefferson County Sheriff John Stone on Sept. 30, and a threatening e-mail to a Broomfield resident on Nov. 2, the indictment said.

Thomas was not in custody Monday.

 TOP