Kerrville man gets 5 years in attack threat
A Kerrville man who made social media posts announcing his readiness to carry out a mass shooting at a local Walmart has been sentenced in San Antonio to five years in federal prison on a gun charge.
According to prosecutors, a search of the residence of Coleman Thomas Blevins in 2021 in response to the ominous posts found guns, ammunition, concentrated THC and “radical ideology paraphernalia” that included neo-nazi books, flags and handwritten documents.
Blevins, 31, told the judge at Wednesday’s sentencing that he was ashamed of the posts. But his lawyer said putting a spotlight on his client’s admittedly extreme views amounted to a Justice Department “witch hunt.”
“I’m going to Walmart. I have no problems spending the rest of my life in prison for shootings up Walmart,” Blevins had written in a pair of posts, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Fuchs told U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam.
“Those weren’t just words. Sandwiched between those two posts was a photo (of ) Mr. Blevins … holding a black assault rifle,” Fuchs continued. “That possession conveyed access, authenticity and a willingness to act. And that’s not misguided bravado, that’s brashness — especially just a year and a half after we had that mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart in this very (federal) district.”
Blevins told the judge his conduct brought shame to him and those close to him.
“This case and the entirety of this, incarceration will always be perhaps the most humiliating chapter of my life,” Blevins said. “Unfortunately, that embarrassment has affected my family perhaps more so than myself. … I just want to stress that I will always be embarrassed and that perhaps the rest of my life will be the undoing of that shame.”
Blevins’ lawyer, Lance Kennedy of Austin, said the Walmart posts were “misguided attempts at bravado that resounded in the online echo chamber of unpopular, sometimes radical beliefs.
“This wasn’t a statement made to the public,” Kennedy said. “It was (to) a small private group on a social media platform that had been inured with these types of statements that he made.”
Kennedy argued that Blevins was not stockpiling weapons to attack Walmart, as alleged by the government. He said one post contained a photo of Blevins holding an unloaded gun at a firearm store, but he did not buy it.
“I find it particularly problematic to continue to use the term, ‘extremist ideology,’” Kennedy told the judge. “That’s a subjective opinion. And in today’s climate, the Department of Justice may hold me, as a Christian, as someone who voted for President Trump, to be an extremist. So the way I contextualize this type of incident is, this is a postjanuary 6 witch hunt.”
“I would say for people that have quote-unquote, right wing extremist ideologies, Mr. Blevins clearly had some extreme views, in my opinion, but he’s entitled to those.”
During a week-long operation, law officers “made contact and conversed with” Blevins, confirming “his affiliation and networking with extremist ideologies,” the Kerr County Sheriff ’s Office said in a news release at the time.
In response to the Walmart threats and out of fear that Blevins would act, the sheriff’s office arrested him the next day, on May 27, 2021, and searched his apartment.
“Many think, ‘That can’t happen here,’ and it was well on the way to happening,” Sheriff Larry Leitha said at the time, adding that investigators “possibly saved many lives”.
“The plot interrupted in this case is unthinkable,” Leitha said.
Officers seized 370 rounds of .223 ammunition, 59 rounds of 5.56 ammunition, and 127 rounds of 9mm ammunition. A black AR-15 .223 rifle with two single magazines and two loaded “double-stack” magazines were found in a vehicle belonging to Blevins’ roommate.
Police also found a number of texts associated with the white power movement, including William Luther Pierce’s “The Turner Diaries,” a Confederate flag and another flag bearing a Sonnenrad, a sunwheel symbol common in neo-nazi imagery.
The rifle matched the one Blevins held in a selfie he posted,
Fuchs said in a memorandum filed ahead of the sentencing hearing.
A subsequent FBI investigation into Blevins’ social media activity revealed other occasions in 2020 and early 2021 where Blevins had posted pictures of himself posing with firearms and ammunition on public social media sites.
In one, he sported a skull mask while holding a rifle. In another, he had donned a gas mask and held up ammunition, covering the photo with German phrases bearing the promise of going from “victory to victory.” In a third, he held a semiautomatic pistol in front of his face.
During all of that conduct, Blevins had been prohibited from possessing firearms and ammunition because he was previously convicted of a felony drug offense in Brewster County and was on probation. He originally was from Alpine in Brewster County.
Blevins was charged by state authorities with making a terroristic threat to create public fear of serious bodily injury, and illegal possession of two firearms. He later pleaded guilty to attempted terroristic threat and the gun charge and was sentenced to two years in prison.
The feds charged him in April 2022 with being a felon with a gun, and he pleaded guilty Nov. 28.
Sentencing guidelines recommended a range of 51 to 63 months. As Kennedy objected, Fuchs asked the judge to go higher and give Blevins 78 months. Pulliam gave him 60 months. “It’s sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to achieve the ends of justice,” Pulliam said.