Wilfrido A. Cardenas Hoffmann, Threatening by Phone, Connecticut 2014

A Venezuelan man who made threatening calls to Newtown residents in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has been sentenced to 12 months and one day of imprisonment.

Wilfrido A. Cardenas Hoffmann, 31, of El Hatillo, Venezuela, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea in Hartford to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for making threatening phone calls to residents of Newtown, Connecticut, shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy in December 2012.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on December 16, 2012, two days after the shooting that claimed 26 lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Cardenas Hoffmann used a voice over IP application on an iPod to make numerous phone calls from his home in Venezuela to Newtown residences.

In one of the telephone calls, Cardenas Hoffmann stated: ‘This is Adam Lanza. I’m gonna [expletive] kill you. You’re dead. You’re dead. You hear me? You’re dead.’

The investigation revealed that Cardenas Hoffmann made more than 90 calls to approximately 47 telephone numbers of Newtown residences. Not all of the calls were successfully placed and answered.

Cardenas Hoffmann was charged by criminal complaint on May 20, 2013. The complaint remained sealed until Cardenas Hoffmann was arrested on June 21, 2014, in Miami as he transitioned through Miami International Airport en route to Mexico from Venezuela. He has been detained since his arrest and pleaded guilty to the offense on December 11, 2014.

‘Threatening Newtown residents just two days after their tragedy was inexplicably cruel,’ stated U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly. ‘This defendant’s senseless crimes re-victimized a brave yet fragile community that was already suffering a profound loss. Together with the FBI, our office is committed to tracking down individuals who commit such hoax crimes wherever they are, and bringing them to justice.’

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