Crime & Safety
Worcester Man Sentenced For Threatening To Kill Obama
Alex Hernandez, an inmate at MCI-Shirley, pleaded guilty this year to threatening to kill the former president in 2015.
WORCESTER, MA – A Worcester man currently serving time at MCI-Shirley was sentenced Wednesday for threatening to kill Barack Obama. Alex Hernandez, 32, a former inmate at the Old Colony Correctional Center in Bridgewater, revealed the plot to another inmate in 2015, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Hernandez pleaded guilty in May to one count of threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, who at the time was Barack Obama. He was sentenced to three years to be served concurrently with his state sentence and three years of supervised release.
He is currently serving 5-8 years for a 2011 state conviction on drug and weapons charges, including the illegal possession of ammunition and a .22 caliber handgun, Tec-9 and .22 caliber rifle - all of which were equipped with high capacity magazines.
In March of 2015, federal agents learned that Hernandez had allegedly talked about wanting to kill the president and expressed interest in obtaining forged travel documents so he could flee the country after the attack. A meeting was set up between Hernandez and an undercover agent who posed as an embassy contact with the means to help Hernandez obtain false documents.
On Dec. 22, 2015 and Feb. 12, 2016, the agent met with Hernandez at Old Colony Correctional Center. During the first meeting, Hernandez said he wanted to attack the White House and that he was studying how to make explosives he could place around government buildings to "create chaos," federal authorities said.
According to the USAO, Hernandez, a Muslim convert, discussed the motivation behind his planned attacks during the second meeting. He told the agent his "brothers are fighting to uphold the laws and structure of the caliphate in the Middle East" and "this government...is painting it like they are the bad guys," authorities said. Hernandez also explained that he wanted to target the president because "he's the one that gives the orders."
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