A judge ordered a five-year prison sentence Monday for a Las Vegas man who threatened violence against prominent officials.
Spencer Gear, 34, went to trial in February and was found guilty of 20 counts related to threatening officials and transmitting threatening communications.
He made his threats to victims across the country between 2023 and 2024, attacking them on topics including the treatment of defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, border policy and transgender people.
Victims who testified during the six-day trial included Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and judges who oversaw cases involving now-President Donald Trump. U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, also testifiedo, but Gear was found not guilty on the counts related to him.
U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey said Gear discounted his communications, saying they were not threatening despite their tone and “excruciating detail.” The FBI had previously asked him to tone down his rhetoric, she noted.
She said Gear used his threats as attempts to bend officials to his will.
“This type of conduct threatens the very operation of the justice system and government as a whole,” she told him.
She read some of the threats aloud.
“This is a death threat,” Gear said in one message.
“I am f—-ing promising you death,” he told another victim.
When released from prison, Gear will be on supervised release for three years, Dorsey ordered.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Schiess said Gear had a long history of making threats.
“That cannot exist in a civilized society,” he said, adding that democracy cannot function when people express their opinions as violent threats.
“I agree with Mr. Schiess,” said Gear, who appeared in federal custody with his long brown hair flowing down the back of his green detainee uniform. “The republic cannot survive if we continue this path of political discourse.”
Gear’s attorneys cited the First Amendment to defend his comments at trial, and on Monday, Gear said he did not think that speech alone could be criminal.
But he also expressed shame.
“I’m embarrassed that I ever talked to people in such a manner,” he said.
He told Dorsey he was not a violent person but had experienced violence in custody, including recently getting his nose broken because he refused to become a gang member.
Gear testified at trial that he became interested in politics around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic and listened to right-wing media personalities including Alex Jones, Dan Bongino and Steve Bannon.
He had come to Las Vegas for school but was not allowed to attend because he was unvaccinated, he said, and became “sort of a conservative political activist.”
When he read an article, he would react by calling a public official and would “vomit out how I felt” without thinking, he said.
“(T)he defendant used graphic, vulgar language to describe the way his victims would die,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. “Threats are not opinions. Accordingly, the defendant lied when he testified that he merely expressed his opinions and moved on.”
Assistant Federal Public Defender Rebecca Levy suggested Monday that Gear had not been a great concern for officials because it took a long time before he was arrested. He did not take steps to carry out threats, she said.
In a news release, federal officials praised law enforcement’s response to Gear.
“I am proud of the men and women of our law enforcement partners, including the Department of Justice for their exceptional work on this case,” U.S. Capitol Police Chief Michael Sullivan said in the release. “Their diligence and commitment to justice helped ensure that the individual responsible was held accountable.”
Levy said her client is remorseful and willing to receive mental health treatment. Dorsey ordered that Gear receive a mental health evaluation and treatment if it is recommended.
“He is open to rehabilitation,” Levy told the judge.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
