Bomb threat suspect found sitting in a courtroom

Chesapeake man threatened to blow up Hampton building

Bomb threats typically take a long time to lead to an arrest, if ever. But it helps when the suspect accused of making the call is sitting in the targeted building afterward.

Billy Ray Saulsberry III, of Chesapeake, allegedly called in a bomb threat at the Hampton Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court at 10:28 a.m. last Wednesday, forcing a brief evacuation of all the Hampton courthouses. By 1:25 p.m., he was in police custody just outside the courthouse.

Court documents show that court staff immediately knew the phone number used to make the threat, and shared it with police. The staff member who answered the phone told police the caller said he was going to “blow this (expletive) up” repeatedly. The staff member then asked whether the caller had placed something in the building, at which point he hung up.

Saulsberry allegedly later told detectives he said “there’s a bomb” during the call, then panicked and used an expletive before hanging up.

Investigators ran the phone number through a law enforcement database which showed the carrier for the number was Inteliquent, Inc. An employee there told police the wholesale provider of that number was TextNow, an app that touts its free phone service and is marketed as a way to get around other service providers. TextNow told investigators the username for the subscriber associated with the number was “billsaulsberry1980@gmail. com,” and provided an associated IP address, court documents show. Saulsberry, 42, was born in 1980, according to court records.

By 12:16 p.m., less than two hours after police say Saulsberry made the threat, he was identified as the caller. Saulsberry’s son, Joshua Saulsberry, was scheduled to have a jury trial in Circuit Court on Feb. 22 on charges related to possession of a firearm by a felon.

Investigators learned that the younger Saulsberry’s case was being held in Courtroom 2 when people were allowed to return to the building. Two detectives sat in the courtroom and “laid eyes” on Billy Ray Saulsberry, according to the probable cause statement.

When court released for lunch, the detectives followed him to his car and detained him at 1:25 p.m. Saulsberry admitted to making the threat to delay his son’s court process and confirmed it was his email that was used to make the account associated with the number, court documents show.

He described the call as an “impulsive act.” The detectives interviewing him described his demeanor as “regretful and worrisome.” Saulsberry is being held without bail.

One of the son’s four charges were dismissed Feb. 22, and the judge ruled a mistrial on the other three the next day, court records show. A trial date for his charges — carrying a concealed weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and providing false identification to a law enforcement officer — is scheduled to be set March 7 after initially being scheduled for Feb. 23, court records show.

While this case took less than three hours to wrap up, officials in Chesapeake this week made an arrest in a pair of bomb threats from late October. The Chesapeake Fire Marshal on Tuesday charged a 15-year-old boy with calling in a threat to his former high school.