 |
|
|
|
|
| 1/30/2009 3:32:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article | |
| | Gutierrez wanted to attend aeronautics college, serve in Iraq | Timothy Ryan Gutierrez was at one time working his way through high school with a bright future, including college and a military career, ahead of him.
Now Gutierrez faces fines upwards of $250,000 and is looking at up to 10 years in prison for allegedly threatening the life of President Barack Obama.
According to the Andrews County News, which compiles annual profiles for Andrews High School graduates, Gutierrez spent 12 years in the Andrews' school system.
The profile stated that his favorite teacher was Mark Risenhoover, a building trades and computer maintenance instructor at the high school. Future plans for Gutierrez were to obtain a bachelor's degree at Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology in Tulsa, Okla., and to "join the Navy Seals and go to Iraq."
The most important lesson Gutierrez learned in high school, according to the profile, was to "be respectful and responsible."
|
|
Updated 3:32 p.m. Friday
UPDATE: Man indicted for Obama assassination threat says e-mail was a prank, once planned to serve in Iraq
Gutierrez appears in court to hear charges
Kristen Plank and Joe Hanel
A Texas man staying with Cortez relatives was indicted this week for allegedly threatening to kill President Barack Obama.
Timothy Ryan Gutierrez, 20, said the threat was a prank because Obama misrepresented himself as president.
A federal grand jury indicted Gutierrez on Monday. He faces one count of transmission of threats and one count of falsely threatening to use explosives.
Gutierrez appeared before La Plata County Court Judge Martha Minot on Friday to hear charges against him, according to a statement the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver released Friday. He is scheduled to appear before Judge David West in U.S. District Court on Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Gutierrez allegedly sent an e-mail to the FBI in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 12, eight days before the inauguration, saying: "I'm going to assassinate the new president of the United States of America. P.S., you have 48 hours to stop it from happening."
"I'm not prejudiced against Obama," Gutierrez said Thursday during an interview outside the Cortez residence where he was staying. "I'm not mad about him becoming president, but he's not doing what he said he was going to do."
Gutierrez, of Andrews, Texas, said Thursday that his brother was about to drive him to Durango to turn himself in to the FBI.
FBI agents arrested Gutierrez late Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver. Gutierrez was held in custody in Durango and made his initial court appearance Friday.
Cortez Police Chief Roy Lane said FBI special agent John Wallace, of Durango, visited his department Jan. 12 to inform police about his plan to speak with Gutierrez about the e-mail. The chief said two city officers accompanied Wallace to Gutierrez's residence, 10 W. Fifth St., Unit 4, Cortez, as a security measure for the interview, which took place about 2:30 p.m. Jan. 12.
"When they knocked on my door, I already knew what I did," Gutierrez said. "They took it seriously. I'm in serious shit."
The federal indictment also says Gutierrez threatened to blow up the Mall of America.
The document quotes more from a second alleged e-mail: "What are you waiting for you have 48 hours remember and one more thing that I have forgotten to mention I have rigged 40 pounds of C4, he and my favorite TNT to 7 cars outside the Mall of America good luck thank you and God bless the you know the rest time is wasting."
The Mall of America is a large shopping mall in Minnesota. The second e-mail was indeed referring to that mall, and not the National Mall in Washington, where crowds watched Obama's inauguration, said Jeff Dorschner, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Denver.
The Mall of America has more than 520 stores and is among the largest indoor shopping malls in the world.
Gutierrez said most of his complaints against Obama stem from the president's actions regarding the economy.
"He's not doing anything for the lower class - just the middle and upper class," Gutierrez said. "Medications are going up, not lowering, and jobs are being lost. His actions are going to get him in trouble."
Gutierrez's biggest complaint about the president focused on the increased pressure to halt oil operations.
"He's shutting down all the oil factories," Gutierrez said about Obama. "Texas just lost 40 oil rigs in one town. I'm pretty mad about that."
Gutierrez said he didn't vote in this past election, nor did he favor Republican John McCain, even though McCain is "more of an oil guy." Back in Texas, Gutierrez didn't have a job but "played with computers" by taking them apart and putting them back together. He said this knowledge helped him hack into the Web site for the U.S. Department of Defense and the FBI.
"I wanted to see what was really going on," he said. "I learned it on my own. There are 500 acres of encryption data (to go through), but I found a slip through it. There's always a hole.
"I didn't think they would actually find it," he said about the e-mail message he left on the FBI system.
After leaving an e-mail on the system's mainframe, Gutierrez said, a "gripload of feds" were dispatched to his parents' home in Andrews, Texas, within three days. Agents then came to his brother's home in Cortez, searched the house and spoke with Gutierrez about the incident.
"They were pissed," he said. "Whatever happens, I blame myself for what I did. My brother had nothing to do with this."
The laptop used to allegedly hack into the FBI's Web site was confiscated and remains in FBI custody, Gutierrez said. A week after the FBI confiscated the laptop, Secret Service agents arrived to talk with him, he said.
Gutierrez said FBI agent Wallace warned him not to talk with media about the incident.
"But it doesn't matter either way," Gutierrez said. "The judge will decide what he is going to decide."
A call to the FBI office in Durango on Thursday was referred to Kathy Wright, media coordinator for the Denver FBI office. Wright said she could not comment on the case.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of five years and 10 years in prison, respectively, plus a $250,000 fine.
Cortez Police Chief Lane said he has no knowledge of any illegal incidents involving Gutierrez in or around Cortez.
"He's not one of our regulars," the chief said. "I don't think he's been here very long."
A background check through the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's Web site showed no prior criminal history for Gutierrez.
Cheryl Martin, chief deputy at the Andrews County (Texas) Sheriff's Office, said Gutierrez only had juvenile charges on his record.
Bob Barnhart, a Montezuma County real estate agent who co-owns the 10 W. Fifth St. property, said Gutierrez has never been a registered tenant at the Cortez residence.
"He's not a registered tenant at any of those units, and there are eight of them," Barnhart said. "(Unit four) is rented to a man and his wife; that's not to say he wasn't living there, but I don't know if there is a connection or not."
At least two other men are facing similar federal charges. Men in Tampa, Fla., and Omaha, Neb., have been indicted this month for threatening to kill Obama, according to The Associated Press.
Journal Staff Writer Steve Grazier contributed to this report.
Reach Journal Staff Writer Kristen Plank at kristenp@cortezjournal.com and Journal Denver Bureau Joe Hanel at joeh@cortezjournal.com.
|
Reader Comments
Posted: Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Article comment by:
naomi austin
I think that anyone who dose that to our President should stay in jail for a real long time
Posted: Saturday, January 31, 2009
Article comment by:
J.C. Adams
This guy is obviously more than stupid. He has admitted "hacking" into the system, which is a crime. Then the threats. A prank? I don't think so. Hopefully he will be able to think about what he did, while he is serving some hard time. And hopefully, he will not return to Cortez.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
|
|
|
