Man Gets 5 Years In Jail After Threatening Online To Kill A Woman And Latinos

Federal prosecutors successfully secured a 5-year prison term for a man said to have threatened to kill a Florida woman and also called for all Latinos to be exterminated. Eric Lin, a 35-year-old resident of Clarksburg, Maryland, was arrested by authorities in Seattle and brought to the court on the charge of making threatening communications through social media.

Direct Messages

The criminal complaint affidavit that federal authorities submitted to the court reveal Lin sent direct messages to the Florida woman threatening to kill her and her family. The convicted felon sent over 150 pages of threatening messages to the woman who worked at a restaurant in South Florida, where Lin is said to have frequently visited, reports say.

The social media accounts of Lin are reportedly replete with talks about supporting a “race war.” The criminal complaint also alleged he admires Adolph Hitler and has also expressed support for President Donald Trump. Lin is also said to have accused the Florida woman of being “anti-American.”

Extermination Of A Race

Federal prosecutors also said that in one of his messages, the 35-year-old wrote he would not stop until the entire “Latin race is racially exterminated.” Lin also allegedly discussed murdering Latinos living in Miami and elsewhere.

On Tuesday, a federal judge meted Lin with five years in prison, which is the maximum term allowed under the charge where he entered a guilty plea, a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida said.

Assumed Names

According to the victim, who is from Spain, Lin talked about Hitler and mass shootings in one of his visits to the restaurant where she worked. She also told the FBI that while the social media accounts were using different names, she believed they were Lin’s because their content matched the things he said, which she personally heard.

Lin confessed to federal investigators that the two social media accounts used in the threats and abuse were his. News outlets sent emails requesting comments from Lin's lawyer, but as of Thursday, there was no response yet.

On the other hand, the father of the convicted felon wrote the judge a letter before sentencing, saying that his son is not the violent type but would like to bluff and talk in an outlandish manner on the Internet. Lin’s father also revealed his son had emotional problems with girls in the past, but he never resorted to physical violence. He also apologized on behalf of his son to the victim and her family.