Sunday, June 30, 2024
Clear, 77°Wind: mph,
Welcome to our new web site!
To give our readers a chance to experience all that our new website has to offer, we have made all content freely avaiable, through October 1, 2018.
During this time, print and digital subscribers will not need to log in to view our stories or e-editions.
A man accused of threatening Doña Ana County District Attorney Gerald Byers with racist attacks pleaded guilty, according to a Department of Justice news release.
Court records show Donald Walter Fowler, 47, pleaded guilty to sending voicemail threats to Byers in October 2023. The two-minute voicemail threatened Byers’ life and referred to lynching the district attorney, using the n-word and threatening his family.
The racist voicemail was attached to a criminal complaint filed in federal court. From the message, Fowler seemed upset that Byers was not criminally charging more police officers for alleged wrongdoings.
“I knowingly sent the above communication from my telephone in Ohio to the District Attorney’s Office in New Mexico. I consciously disregarded the substantial risk that (the communication) would be viewed as a threat by (Byers),” Fowler said in the plea agreement.
According to court records, Fowler, who lives in Ohio, could face up to three years in prison, a $250,000 fine and up to three years of supervised probation.
The Bulletin reached out to Byers for comment. He declined to comment for this article but said he would speak out at the sentencing hearing. That hearing is expected to take place in August.
The Bulletin also reached out to Fowler’s attorney. We are awaiting a response.
