A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a 46-year-old Des Moines man on 16 counts of Internet threats of violence and identity theft.
The indictment charges Gino A. Turrella with transmitting threats, via e-mail, on eight occasions between May 2, 2008 and May 30, 2008, to Boeing facilities and an Anacortes oil refinery, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release.
In making the threats, Turrella reportedly posed as other real people, and used e-mail addresses that he had opened under the names of those individuals.
In the e-mails that Turrella transmitted to Boeing, he stated variously that he was going to bring a gun into a Boeing facility and “shoot ever [sic] employee I see,” and also that he would “strap himself with explosives and detonate” if and when he was apprehended, in order to cause “maximum death and destruction in the workplace.”
Members of the FBI, Auburn Police and Pierce County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case. Investigators arrested Turrella Aug. 26 in the parking lot of a store in Tukwila.
Law enforcement officers recovered more than 100 firearms during a search of Turrella’s home. Turrella remained in federal custody as of Thursday.
The crime of threat by instrument of interstate commerce (Internet threats) is punishable by up to 10 years in prison; the crime of identity theft is punishable by up to five years in prison. Conviction of either also can result in up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case.
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