Man Pleads Guilty to Online Death Threats Against Boston Mosque

An Iowa resident pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of threatening to kill Muslim members of an Islamic organization in Boston by posting threats on the group’s Facebook page, U.S. District Attorney Carmen Ortiz says.

57-year-old Gerald Wayne Ledford, of Clinton, pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting in interstate commerce a communication containing a threat to injure.

At Thursday’s plea hearing, Ledford admitted to threatening the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), a cultural center that offers a mosque and a variety of educational, spiritual, and social services to Muslims in New England.

Ledford posted two separate threats on the ISBCC’s Facebook page in October of 2014.

The first post threatened, “Mohamed was a child rapist, a murderer and molester. You all will go to hell with you’re father satan..we will destroy you here and in your’re s**t hole countries.”

The second post contained a photo of a man holding a long gun with a caption that read, “This is for you followers of the piece of s**t Mohamed.”

The defendant admitted that he knew the messages would be reviewed as threats.

Ledford was charged in the District of Massachusetts. In June 2015, he was arrested in Iowa and he pleaded guilty in a federal court in the Southern District of Iowa. He is scheduled to be sentenced on November 13, 2015 in Iowa.

Ledford faces a sentence of no greater than five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of $250,000.