Mobile man sentenced to time served after admitting to threat to kill Biden

Mobile man sentenced to time served after admitting to threat to kill Biden

A Mobile man who admitted in federal court last week that he had phoned the White House and threatened to kill President Joe Biden was this week sentenced to time already served.

John Andrew Bazor Jr., 38, pleaded guilty to one count of making interstate threatening communications. In exchange for Bazor’s guilty plea, federal prosecutors dropped the charge of making threats against the president and successors to the presidency, according to federal court documents.

Bazor admitted he called the White House switchboard in July 2022 and told the operator “I am coming to assassinate the president. I can’t wait to see your faces when I put a bullet in him.”

At the time the plea agreement was reached, U.S. District Court Judge Kristi DuBose indicated she might not accept the U.S. Attorney’s sentencing recommendation. Thursday, however, she sentenced Bazor to the time served of nearly 18 months and placed him on three years probation, according to federal court documents.

Bazor also will be required to undergo mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Bazor’s attorney noted last week that the time his client had already served is longer than the minimum sentence under federal guidelines, but federal code allows for a maximum sentence of two years. Had Bazor been found guilty of making a threat against the president, he faced a maximum sentence of five years.

When she expressed hesitancy to accept the prosecutor’s recommendation, DuBose referenced Bazor’s criminal record, which includes a pending trial for domestic violence and drug possession, as a factor.

Bazor was arrested in February 2022 and charged with third-degree domestic violence/harassment. State court documents say Bazor threatened to kill a woman and her mother. He was freed on bail, with the court ordering he have no contact with the victim or her mother.

In August 2022 — after Bazor was charged with threatening the president — the domestic violence case was bound over to a grand jury pending the outcome of the federal case.

In December, a forensic pathologist found that Bazor was not afflicted with any mental disease or defect and is thus able to understand the nature of his actions and the consequences of the charges against him, according to federal court documents.