Vinita school bomb hoax nets man 5-year federal prison sentence

PHOENIX, Ariz. — A North Carolina man is sentenced to five years in federal prison for sending hundreds of fake emergency phone calls including bomb threats to schools across the U.S.

James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 21, of Charlotte, N.C.  pleaded guilty to four of 27 federal charges.

He was sentenced to 84 months but received credit for time served, according to court records.

McCarty will be placed on a three-year supervised release and ordered to pay $5,817.56 in restitution upon his release.

Two of the guilty pleas involve reporting fake school shootings in Vinita, Oklahoma and Westfield, Indiana.  The remaining two pleas involved using the identification of another person in relation to a felony violation.

In January 2021, McCarty called the Vinita School District saying he “was at the high school and about to shoot with guns” and “would shoot at propane bottles,” according to a federal indictment.

The call caused the school to immediately go into lockdown and prompted a huge response from police, state troopers, and firefighters from Craig, Ottawa, and Delaware counties, and the Oklahoma Highway Patrol. McCarty is also accused of assuming the identity of a Vinita student during the telephone hoax, the court document states. The telephone calls originated from Kayenta, Arizona and were made to schools and police stations in Oklahoma, Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, and Ohio.

McCarty’s attorney argued for a prison sentence between four to seven years followed by 36 months of supervised release.

In his argument for a lighter sentence, it was noted in court documents McCarty “began playing video games at age 2” and this supplemented his ability to speak.

McCarty’s childhood was marked by mental illness and family problems and as a young teen, he became “obsessed” with video games and winning and was referred to an addiction specialist, according to the sentencing memorandum.

Federal prosecutors argued McCarty’s conduct “should not be (confused) with annoying or harassing ‘prank calls’ from which he has learned his lesson,” court documents show.

The type of hoax calls McCarty made was specifically targeted toward deceiving police departments, school officials, and homeowners, that a crisis was occurring, or about to occur, according to federal sentencing documents.

“The calls caused confusion, anxiety, fear, all which had to be followed to the end to make sure the call was false and that the environment was safe,” prosecutors stated in the legal document.

What is Swatting?

Swatting is a term used to describe a hoax call made to emergency services, typically reporting an immediate threat to human life, to draw a response from law enforcement and the SWAT team to a specific location. Confusion on the part of homeowners or responding officers has resulted in health-related or violent consequences and pulls limited resources away from valid emergencies.

Offenders often use spoofing technology to anonymize their own phone numbers to make it appear to first responders as if the emergency call is coming from the victim’s phone number.

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