Arizona Man Rene Ortiz Sentenced to 38 Months for Threatening to Kill President Trump and Former Vice President Harris
Rene Ortiz, 56, of Casa Grande, in Pinal County, Arizona, was sentenced on October 20 in federal court in Phoenix to 38 months in prison for written threats to kill both major-party presidential candidates during the 2024 election. According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Arizona, Senior U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee imposed the sentence. A federal jury had convicted Ortiz on June 8, 2026, of two felony counts of making threats against successors to the presidency and one felony count of making threats against a former president.
Prosecutors said that on Election Day, November 5, 2024, Ortiz delivered to the federal courthouse in Phoenix a written threat to "execute the newly elected President of the United States by firing an M-16A2 service rifle with a magazine of 6 rounds," directed at both candidates, former Vice President Kamala Harris and President Donald Trump. After the election, on November 25, 2024, he delivered a second threat to the federal courthouse in Tucson, vowing to shoot "the incoming fraudulent elected President of the United States" at the inauguration on January 20, 2025.
When U.S. Secret Service agents interviewed Ortiz about the threats, he repeated his intent to make them. He was arrested on January 17, 2025, three days before the inauguration. The Secret Service investigated the case with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amy Chang and Abbie Broughton prosecuted the case, No. 25-CR-00153-PHX-SMM.
According to the Associated Press, Ortiz is a Marine veteran. Phoenix radio station KTAR reported that he told agents he had a grievance with the Department of Veterans Affairs, claiming the agency had promised to pay for his schooling if he quit his job but failed to reimburse him after he enrolled. At his four-day trial, his public defender argued the threats were the actions of a mentally ill man with no intention of carrying them out, and a psychologist testified that Ortiz has schizoaffective disorder and borderline personality disorder. The jury convicted him on all three felony counts.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于 Phoenix 的 Sandra Day O'Connor 联邦法院大楼，Ortiz 的威胁信曾送至 Phoenix 联邦法院。照片：Gonzo fan2007 摄，CC BY，经维基共享资源／Sandra Day O'Connor U.S. Courthouse in Phoenix. Photo: Gonzo fan2007, CC BY, via Wikimedia Commons
