Adam Michael Nettina, Threatening Phone Call, Maryland 2023

Adam Michael Nettina, a 34-year-old man from West Friendship, Maryland, has been charged with using a telephone to threaten an LGBTQ advocacy group. The federal criminal complaint was filed on March 31, 2023, and Nettina was arrested later that evening.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint, Nettina made a threatening voicemail to the victim organization on the evening of March 28, 2023. The message referenced the March 27, 2023, mass shooting at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, involving multiple shooting fatalities, where the perpetrator was publicly identified as being transgender.

In the call, numerous threats were made, including, ‘…We’ll cut your throats. We’ll put a bullet in your head….You’re going to kill us? We’re going to kill you ten times more in full.’

Nettina is facing a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for interstate communications with a threat to injure. If convicted, a federal district court judge will determine the sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

A criminal complaint is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by criminal complaint is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.

United States Attorney Erek L. Barron and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke commended the FBI for its work in the investigation. Mr. Barron and Ms. Clarke thanked Assistant U.S. Paul E. Budlow and Deputy Chief Bobbi Bernstein of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, who are prosecuting the federal case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland is launching the national initiative, United Against Hate, this spring. The campaign aims to empower local residents and communities to combat unlawful acts of hate, stand against racism and discrimination, and alter the course of growing intolerance.

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