CONCORD, New Hampshire — A guy from New Hampshire was found dead while the jury was deliberating on his case Thursday. He was charged with making death threats against presidential candidates last year.
Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover is on trial, which started on Monday and has been going on since Tuesday. A message sent to Anderson’s lawyer asking for feedback was not answered right away. It was written in court that “the government has learned that the defendant is deceased.” Since they found out Anderson has died, the prosecutors have moved to throw out the charges.
In December, a federal grand jury charged Anderson with three counts of sending a threat through interstate trade. Based on each charge, the person could spend up to five years in jail, three years under supervision, or pay a fine of up to $250,000.
There were no names given by the U.S. Attorney’s office. A spokesman for Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that texts were sent to his team when Anderson was arrested.
Anderson was caught on December 9 and let go on December 14. A federal judge set several conditions for his release, one of which was that he couldn’t talk to any presidential candidate or their campaigns.
Anderson, who was getting help for his mental health, was also told to take all of his drugs as directed.
Court records show that Anderson got a text message from the candidate’s campaign telling him about a breakfast event in Portsmouth. In answer, the campaign staff got two text messages. One said they would shoot the candidate in the head, and the other said they would kill everyone at the event and savage their bodies.
There was a screenshot of texts from December 6 that Anderson sent in response to a request to see a candidate “who isn’t afraid to tell it like it is.” This was included in a court document that was filed when we arrested him. “Tell it Like It Is Town Halls” was the name of Chris Christie’s events.
A spokeswoman for Christie’s campaign thanked the police for taking those threats seriously.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Justice said that the department doesn’t name victims because we value their privacy and are required to by the Crime Victims Rights Act.
A court record says Anderson told the FBI that he had sent similar texts to “multiple other campaigns” during an interview.
There were texts like the ones sent to two other candidates before the ones from Ramaswamy, on November 22 and December 6.
