Massachusetts

Prison Inmate Sentenced for Threatening to Kill President Barack Obama

A former inmate at a Massachusetts correctional center was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Boston for threatening to kill President Barack Obama in 2015.

Alex Hernandez, 32, of Worcester, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 37 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to one count of threatening to kill and inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said in March 2015, federal agents obtained information alleging that Hernandez wanted to kill President Obama and had expressed an interest in obtaining false travel documents so he could flee the country after the alleged attack.

After gathering their information, law enforcement officers allegedly introduced Hernandez to an undercover agent posing as an embassy contact through another inmate who was cooperating with the investigation.

In December 2015 and February 2016, the undercover agent met with Hernandez at Old Colony Correctional Center. During the first meeting, Hernandez stated that he wanted to attack the White House and that he was studying how to make explosives that could be placed around government buildings to “create chaos.” During the second meeting with the undercover agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Hernandez, a Muslim convert, discussed the motivation for his planned attacks.

Hernandez's sentence is to be served concurrently with a state sentence he is currently serving at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, and three years of supervised release.

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