James Stearns (Fond du Lac Co. Jail)
FOND DU LAC, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — James Stearns was convicted Monday and sentenced to time served for making terrorist threats after he threatened to go down in a “blaze of glory” over firearms legislations by shooting legislators and family stating, “people will hunt you and your family down like an animal.”
Stearns, 75, was found guilty at a bench trial by Judge Anthony Nehls. There was no jury. Stearns was sentenced to seven days in jail, which he already served, court records show.
According to the criminal complaint, Sterns sent two emails at the end of May 2022, threatening to shoot Wisconsin legislators if they passed a bill allowing teachers to be armed with firearms. Sterns sent one email threatening a specific Wisconsin legislator and their family.
One of the emails was sent to a radio host stating:
Should the lawmakers of the State of Wisconsin ever vote to arm the public school teachers and/or administrators in Wisconsin, the following will happen! James R. Stearns at N8218 Ashberry Avenue in FDL, WI. Will purchase a gun, the most powerful I can purchase, and go to Madison and shoot as many of the people who vote for this law as I can before someone shoots me. Arming the teachers and administrators would be the worst possible thing our country/state would ever see, and I am more than willing to go down in a blaze of glory. Check me out to see that presently, and the first 72 years of my life, I have never broken a law, or been involved in the legal system in virtually any way. Outside of a few traffic tickets, my record is as clean as anyone walking the street of Wisconsin. Do Not consider this a THREAT, but rather a PROMISE !!!,” it said.
Sterns is also sent a second email to a specific Wisconsin legislator in late May of 2022, threatening the legislator and their family, saying that people would “hunt you down and your family like animals”:
[VICTIM 1] do you not value the lives of your family, yourself and your fellow legislators. If you pass legislation to arm teachers administrators and other staff people in the Wisconsin public schools, you’ll be a dead man in 60 days of passing that legislation. Does this make sense to you. People will hunt you down and your family like animals. This would be the worst and the last legislation you get passed in Wisconsin VICTIM 1. Do you understand what I am saying. Please pass some legislation that makes guns harder to get for the deranged criminals felons mentally deranged and unstable individuals of Wisconsin. We need no more AR15’s in Wisconsin since they are assault weapons not weapons of protection or hunting weapons. It is one thing to have hand guns and rifles for hunting but assault weapons. You do what you need to but if you do not listen to the citizens of Wisconsin your life will certainly be lost to those Wisconsin citizens. People will hunt you and your family down like an animal. VICTIM 1 do the right thing for Wisconsin citizens. Giving teachers guns is a very bad idea,” the email stated.
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