An inmate serving life in the Georgia State Prison was slapped with terroristic threats charges after a mobile phone in his cell was linked to threatening calls made to Milton’s Mayor, authorities said. The investigation, led by Milton Police and with aid from the Georgia Department of Corrections, pinned 30-year-old Eric Elam with the brazen threats directed at Mayor Peyton Jamison as well as Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.
According to a statement by the Milton Police Department, the December 16 phone call was traced back to a contraband cellphone found in Elam’s possession. Serving a life sentence, Elam, who has been burdened with two counts of Terroristic Threats and Acts, is believed by the cops to be a pawn in a larger scheme orchestrated by unknown parties.
The probe has been anything but straightforward, with Milton Police encountering the all-too-familiar hurdles that come with nailing down cyber threats – challenges amplified by the often impenetrable shadows of technology. Nevertheless, Milton detectives, praised for their "smart, dedicated" work by the Police Chief Jason Griffin, wove together the evidential strands that laid the path to Elam’s cell.
"Crimes like this in the cybercrime underworld and 'dark web' are typically very hard to investigate," Griffin said. "Yet our smart, dedicated detectives – in conjunction with the Department of Corrections – bucked the odds and determined the source of this threat." Mayor Jamison expressed his gratitude, stressing the peace given to him and his by the tireless efforts of the police, "It’s a great comfort to myself and my family to know that we have the Milton Police protecting and supporting not just us, but our entire city," he said, as per Milton Police Department's news release.
The charges against Elam don't close the case; the Milton Police are still actively trying to hunt down any others involved in both the recent threats and another set from last fall. Jamison is confident in the ongoing investigation, saying, “I could not be prouder of what our officers have done thus far or more confident they will continue to work hard to find all those responsible."
