North Carolina man sentenced to prison for threatening to kill Jews in Charlotte
A North Carolina man was sentenced to a year-and-a-half in prison Wednesday for threatening to kill Jews in Charlotte days after the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel, prosecutors said.
FBI agents arrested 64-year-old Jeffrey Hobgood in October, accusing him of emailing threats to the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
‘We are at war,’ man said
“Israeli jews of david star, I am going to take every one of you out,” Hobgood wrote in an Oct. 11 email, according to court records.
On Oct. 13, after law enforcement officers contacted him, Hobgood sent a second email to the same address saying, in part, “Guess what happens to traitors? ... Public execution ... we are at war ... If you think you ... are going to win, then you are delusional.”
Hobgood was arrested in his hometown of Troy, about 60 miles east of Charlotte. He pleaded guilty in January to one count of communicating threats.
The FBI evaluated the email and determined it to be “non-credible” and a “non-imminent” threat, CEO Annie Keith and board president Lisa Strause Levinson, of the Levine Jewish Community Center, said in October.
In a statement after Hobgood’s plea, Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte CEO Sue Worrell said: “Given the alarming rise in antisemitism since October 7, the news of this guilty plea is a step in the right direction in the pursuit of justice and safety.”
‘Abhorrent’ threats
Leaders of the Levine Jewish Community Center in Charlotte said the emails were sent to the general email box of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte.
“It is abhorrent to threaten someone with violence because of who they are or how they worship,” Robert DeWitt, the special agent in charge of the FBI in Charlotte, said Wednesday in a statement, adding that agents and prosecutors would not let Hobgood “offer excuses” for his emails.
U.S. Attorney Sandra Hairston of the Middle District of North Carolina announced Hobgood’s sentencing.
The FBI’s civil rights and public corruption squad investigated the case with the Troy and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police departments.
