Tyler Anderson, 30, of Dover, New Hampshire -the man accused of threatening the lives of several presidential candidates – was found dead on Wednesday as the jury was in deliberation to determine his verdict.
According to Concord Police Department Deputy Chief John Thomas, Anderson was found sitting in his car under a covered bridge that is part of the Concord Hospital, with the smell of a pungent chemical, which led the officers to ask for a hazardous material squad to the site. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Anderson’s death took place during deliberations this past Tuesday, after a trial that began Monday, according to court filings released Thursday. Prosecutors immediately sought to dismiss the indictment after they learned of Anderson’s death, whereas the U.S. Attorney’s office did not name the candidates involved.
The charges, which a federal grand jury had put forward in December, were three counts against Anderson of sending a threat using interstate commerce. Each charge had a prison sentence of five years maximum, three years supervised release, and a fine of $250,000. Anderson had been previously released on condition that he refrain from contacting any presidential candidates and was to remain on recommended treatments for his mental health.
The case had been highly publicized based on the content of the threats. Anderson was accused of sending threats to the 2024 Republican presidential campaigns of Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley, and Chris Christie. At trial, the government was represented by Judge Samantha Elliott, Assistant U.S. Attorneys Charles Rombeau and Matthew Vicinanzo, and Assistant Federal Public Defender Dorothy Graham. The government’s case included evidence-based accounts of Anderson’s threatening texts. One of those sent to Ramaswamy’s campaign following an invitation to a breakfast event was: “Another opportunity for me to blow his brains out. I’m going to kill everyone who attends and then [expletive] their corpses.” Similar messages had been sent to Haley and Christie campaigns, threatening to “blow the bastard’s head off” and “impaled with a red hot spike” and “disembowelment.”
Prosecutors claimed that while they honor free speech and political discourse, the threats of violence had gone too far and were not acceptable. They presented evidence to show that over two years, Anderson had received about 40 political texts and had only responded by saying “stop” once. Vicinanzo pointed out that “Anderson, over two years, made a conscious decision to disregard the risk that someone might take his communications as real threats.”
In his defense, Dorothy Graham argued that Anderson simply had not believed that actual people were processing the texts he was sending but instead thought they were automated responses. She insisted the threats in question were not meant as severe communication but that he was overreacting to the persistence of political texts. During the trial, the prosecution called five witnesses, including Danielle Evansic, a volunteer coordinator with the Ramaswamy campaign, who said that Anderson’s messages sent shivers down the spines of campaign members and caused the campaign to implement extra security. Other witnesses from the Haley and Christie campaigns testified that their teams had used similar messaging software and that they had been ignorant of Anderson’s threats until after he was arrested.
FBI Special Agent Adam Howe testified that following his arrest, Anderson was interviewed, and he admitted that his graphic and over-the-top messages were intended to stop the campaigns from sending him further texts. Howe noted that Anderson made contradictory statements, stating that he was not expecting the text to be processed but also claimed he thought they were automatically generated. Before wrapping up deliberations, Judge Elliott told jurors yesterday that he’d likely be bringing them to a close soon. Today, though, an untimely death has abruptly ended the case, leaving complicated and alarming questions still open.
