TEXAS — In Waco today, a federal judge sentenced a Dripping Springs man to 18 months in federal prison for making threats to kill individuals on Fort Hood in back in February.
In addition to the prison term, United States District Judge Robert Pitman ordered that 29-year-old Thomas Anthony Chestnut, Jr., be placed on supervised release for a period of three years after completing his prison term. Chestnut has remained in federal custody since being arrested by FBI agents on February 24, 2017.
On September 19, 2017, jurors found Chestnut guilty of one count of threatening to assault or murder a uniformed service member and one count of interstate communications with threat to injure. Testimony during the two-day trial revealed that on February 22, 2017, Chestnut made verbal threats when he called and spoke with a sergeant at the US Army 1st Calvary Division at Fort Hood. Chestnut threatened to go to Fort Hood, kill the sergeant, take hostages, start a mass killing spree and then kill himself if he was not allowed to speak with someone of rank. Chestnut then spoke with a major and advised that he was a former soldier wrongly accused of a crime and eventually released from prison in 2016. Chestnut further advised if he was unable to speak with a U.S. Army III Corps Commander or a Sergeant Major regarding back pay, or did not receive the money he believed was owed to him, that he planned to shoot soldiers on Fort Hood.
