Man charged in e-mail threats

• By JOHN A. COLVIN
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Nov 14, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A 19-year-old Mississippi man is facing federal charges after allegedly sending threatening e-mails with racial overtones to  students at several universities, including Nicholls State University and LSU, according to an arrest affidavit.

On Wednesday, FBI agents arrested Dyron Hart, of Poplarville, Miss., and booked him with sending threatening e-mails, stemming from messages he sent to three black students attending Nicholls State, in Thibodaux.

Hart is black.

Hart told the FBI that he wanted to “to create a reaction” after Barack Obama was elected president, according to an arrest affidavit.

“(Wednesday’s) arrest by the FBI and our federal response should serve as a powerful signal to all we serve that vile and threatening communications will not be tolerated and will be met with swift response,” said U.S. Attorney Jim Letten in a news release his New Orleans office issued.

Hart allegedly created a false profile of a white man on Facebook, a social networking Web site. He is accused of using that profile to send e-mail messages to people listed as his own friends.

The affidavit included the entire text of the identical e-mail messages sent to two women students and one male student at Nicholls State, along with students at LSU, at universities in Alabama and Mississippi, as well as other recipients in the Poplarville, Miss., area.

It included four racial epithets.

Hart allegedly wrote, “I bet your all proud that you just got a black president huh. Well im here to tell, Barack just maid me your worst nightmare. … Because of him I have to kill you. I have plans to off over three thousand (racial epithet deleted) in a months time because of Barack.”

Hart allegedly went on to say he was debating whether to start off by killing the people he selected to receive his messages.

“By the time you’ve read this I will have already planned on how I will kill you,” Hart wrote, according to the affidavit. “I’m just letting you know so your not surprised when a random white man is walking down the street just split your (expletive deleted) head wide open.”

The e-mails were sent to the Nicholls students in the early morning hours of Nov. 5, just hours after Obama was declared president-elect.

Meeting on the afternoon of Nov. 5, Nicholls officials concluded that the e-mails were sent to a group of individuals based upon their political views and  were not focused on Nicholls or the surrounding community, according to a news release the university issued.