Preston McWaters Gets 42 Months for Bomb Threats

Preston Alexander McWaters, 26, of Athens, Georgia, is headed to federal prison for 42 months after terrorizing Palm Beach County with a months-long campaign of bomb threats targeting schools, a hospital, a business, and the Palm Beach International Airport. U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn handed down the sentence in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, following McWaters’ guilty plea to multiple federal charges.

McWaters admitted to transmitting threats in interstate commerce to injure others, pleading guilty to four counts under Title 18, U.S. Code, Section 875(c), and two counts of conveying false information about bombings in public places, violating Section 1038(a)(1)(A) and (c). The threats, delivered via email and other digital communications from late 2015 through early 2016, were carefully routed through anonymizing tools in an effort to evade detection.

But McWaters didn’t stop at institutions. He specifically targeted a woman who had obtained a protective order against him, vowing to harm her, and separately threatened to attack the family of a Palm Beach County high school principal. Investigators say McWaters went to elaborate lengths to pin the threats on a romantic rival — and later, the rival’s girlfriend — in a bid to throw authorities off his trail.

The FBI’s Miami Field Office cracked the case, tracing the digital fingerprints back to McWaters, who was arrested in March 2016. Despite being in custody and awaiting sentencing, McWaters attempted to send additional threatening messages, conduct that prosecutors say significantly increased his exposure under federal sentencing guidelines.

Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, praised the collaborative takedown, citing the FBI, Palm Beach County School District Police Department, and Jupiter Police Department as instrumental. He also acknowledged support from law enforcement agencies across Florida and Georgia, including the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, the University of Georgia Police Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Edward Nucci, Karen Gilbert, and Adam Fels. Court documents are available through the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or via PACER at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.