A New Mexico man, 21-year-old James Thomas Andrew McCarty of Kayenta, has been sentenced to a seven-year prison term following his guilty plea to charges relating to a series of hoax calls that precipitated SWAT team responses. The announcement came last week regarding the sentence, which is connected to two separate indictments. McCarty admitted to making hoax calls in incidents dating back to 2020, involving false threats of violence at schools in Indiana and Oklahoma and the manipulation of a Ring doorbell device to simulate a hostage situation in Florida.
Specific details touched on McCarty's actions, including him falsely identifying as a student prepared to use an AR-15 rifle, a Glock handgun, and explosives to terrorize schools. The prosecution successfully argued that McCarty's intent was to illicitly use these fabricated narratives to not just alarm, but to firmly activate law enforcement's most urgent response mechanisms. According to a press release from the United States Attorney's Office in Arizona, the hoax calls to the schools were made on January 25, 2021. McCarty placed another set of calls in April and May 2021, where he reportedly claimed to have committed a murder and threatened to detonate explosives at a residential location.
In addition to the Arizona indictment, McCarty faced charges in California. He pleaded guilty to gaining unauthorized access to a Ring doorbell account, making a false police report, and broadcasting the resulting emergency response live online. This intrusion was not only a violation of privacy but it also utilized police resources under false pretenses and endangered communities.
The comprehensive investigation spanning multiple states was spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with offices in both Arizona and Los Angeles cooperating. A coalition of local law enforcement agencies, including the South Plainfield Police Department in New Jersey and the Vinita Police Department in Oklahoma, provided essential support, demonstrating the extensive collaborative efforts required to bring McCarty to justice. The United States Attorney's Offices in the District of Arizona, Phoenix, and in the Central District of California were also instrumental in prosecuting the cases against McCarty.
Following the sentence, the gravity of McCarty's actions has been both recognized and reprimanded by the full extent of the law, in hopes of deterring similar behavior and affirming the serious consequences of such reckless actions. The case numbers CR 22-08133-PHX-SPL and CR 24-00122-PHX-SPL correspond to the District of Arizona and Central District of California indictments, respectively, highlighting the two distinct series of criminal actions for which James Thomas Andrew McCarty will serve time.
