Suspect tied to racist letter to coach
Chiswell, who has been in jail since November, linked to threatening Sumlin
The man accused of writing a racist, threatening letter to thenTexas A&M coach Kevin Sumlin in September 2017 was initially investigated by Houston police for writing threatening letters to at least three others, including a Houston socialite, according to Robin Chiswell’s attorney.
“During the investigation, the issue about the Sumlin letter came up, and the responses by the defendant led the investigators to identify him as a primary suspect in that case,” said Val Zuniga, the attorney representing Chiswell.
The county rescheduled Chiswell’s Friday arraignment to a later date to investigate whether there might be additional letters, including the possibility of at least two more correspondences to the Sumlin residence in College Station, Knecht added, which would constitute stalking.
Go away ‘or else’
No charges officially have been filed concerning the letter to Sumlin, both Zuniga and Knecht said. Zuniga added that he intends for Chiswell to receive a psychiatric evaluation to try to reduce the $250,000 bond that has kept Chiswell in jail since November.
Brazos County officials will wait to see what happens with Chiswell’s case in Harris County before deciding their best route in perhaps pursuing any charges against him, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.
The single-page rant directed at Sumlin arrived at the Sumlin home in 2017 and included a racial slur directed at Sumlin, and finished with an “or else” after “please get lost.”
The letter to Sumlin, with a handwritten return address of the Houston Country Club, arrived to the Sumlin home in the days after A&M’s 45-44 loss at UCLA in the 2017 season opener.
Sumlin’s wife, Charlene Sumlin, then posted the letter to Twitter in the days after and wrote in part, “Please tell me how any part of this is ok.”
Chiswell, 60, is a former employee of the Houston Country Club, Zuniga said. According to Knecht, additional threatening letters connected to Chiswell had the return address of the River Oaks Country Club.
“That’s what initially led them down that investigative path,” Zuniga said of investigators tying in Chiswell to the Sumlin letter. “They started connecting the dots on the return addresses.”
The Brazos County Sheriff’s Department opened an investigation following Charlene Sumlin’s Twitter post, and she later posted a follow-up tweet vowing they would “get to the bottom of this ordeal.”
The matter went cold apparently until Chiswell’s arrest by Houston police on the stalking charge about two months ago.
Crossing the line
Kevin Sumlin addressed the hate mail in September 2017, when he was still the A&M coach.
“I’ve done this a long time, and I get lots of mail,” he said at the time. “I get criticism, which is part of the job. I get suggestions, and that’s part of the job. In this situation, for that (letter) to come to my home and for her to open it and read that, that is completely different.
“My wife and kids have never called a play. My wife and kids have never done anything football-wise that led to us losing a game or winning a game.”
The “or else” was what prompted action from the Sumlins regarding the matter, he added.
“The racial (aspect) is one part of it, but the open-ended threat at the end, (sent) to my house … I’ve got to draw the line there,” Sumlin said. “(Charlene) didn’t like it, she didn’t feel safe about it, my kids didn’t feel safe about it.”
A&M fired Sumlin in November 2017, and he was hired by the University of Arizona in January of last year.