A 39-year-old Texas man is facing federal charges after he allegedly called a Georgia judge’s chambers and threatened to kill him on the same morning that judge sentenced Colin Gray, the father convicted in connection with the Apalachee High School mass shooting. Brandon Dontrail Scroggins of Abilene remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service awaiting transport to face the charges, and officials have not said when he will be extradited to the Northern District of Georgia.
According to a U.S. Department of Justice press release cited by CBS News, Scroggins allegedly called the chambers of Judge Nicholas Primm on July 30, 2026, leaving a voicemail stating that “a death date just came up for Nicholas Primm” and warning the judge’s assistant that Primm and “everything he love[s]” was “dead.” As reported by FOX 5 Atlanta, investigators say Scroggins also phoned the Barrow County District Attorney’s Office that same day and left hostile voicemails directed at DA staff and their children.
Investigators say Scroggins made the calls threatening Barrow County over what he described as an alleged injustice, according to the FOX 5 Atlanta report. He was charged with transmitting interstate communications containing threats to injure another person, a federal offense under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) that carries a statutory maximum of five years in prison and fines of up to $250,000 per count, per a Congressional Research Service report.
Threats Landed Same Morning as Historic Sentencing
Judge Primm was presiding over Colin Gray’s sentencing hearing the morning the alleged threats were made. As reported by WUGA, Primm sentenced 55-year-old Colin Gray to 15 years in prison following his conviction on 29 counts, including second-degree murder, making Gray the first parent in United States history convicted of murder for a mass shooting committed by his child. Gray was convicted for providing the rifle used by his 14-year-old son, Colt Gray, in the September 4, 2024 attack at Apalachee High School, where Colt Gray killed four people and injured nine others.
During sentencing, Primm said he faced the “nearly impossible task” of setting aside emotion to sentence Gray without passion, according to WSB-TV, noting that Gray’s crimes stemmed from severe criminal negligence in ignoring clear warning signs rather than an intentional act to help his son. Prosecutors had requested an 80-year sentence, but the judge ordered 15 years served concurrently, the station reported. Just two days before his father’s hearing, Colt Gray, now 16, pleaded guilty to 55 counts and was sentenced by Primm to life in prison without parole plus 20 years, per the same WUGA report.
Federal Prosecutors Emphasize Judicial Independence
Federal prosecutors filed the criminal complaint against Scroggins in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg and FBI Atlanta Special Agent in Charge Marlo Graham emphasized in the Justice Department’s press release that public servants handling mass shooting cases deserve to work free of intimidation and that judicial decisions must be based on law rather than fear.
Scroggins has unclear legal representation for his upcoming federal court appearances, and it remains unconfirmed when he will be extradited from Texas. He is also a convicted felon and was booked into the Taylor County Jail in Texas on February 14, 2026, on state charges of assault family violence, according to public arrest records maintained by Taylor County Mugshots.
Scroggins Faces Charges Across Three States
The Georgia case is not Scroggins’s only brush with federal authorities over alleged threats against the judiciary. As detailed in a Justice Department press release reported by WSB Radio, Scroggins also faces separate federal charges in the Middle District of Alabama for allegedly threatening a federal judge there, in addition to the harassment charges pending against him in Texas.
The case arrives amid a documented surge in threats against judges nationwide. Official threat statistics published by the U.S. Marshals Service on August 17, 2026, show that federal authorities opened 582 protective investigations into threats against 307 unique judges through mid-August of this fiscal year, up from 564 total judicial threats recorded in fiscal year 2025. The Marshals Service handles protective intelligence and security for more than 2,700 federal judges nationwide, but Judge Primm, as a Georgia state superior court judge, relies primarily on local county sheriff resources rather than federal protection.
That security gap has drawn attention from Congress. According to a July 2025 press release from the U.S. House of Representatives, federal lawmakers introduced the bipartisan Countering Threats and Attacks on Our Judges Act to create a state judicial threat intelligence center, noting that the nation’s roughly 30,000 state and local judges lack the federal security infrastructure available to their federal counterparts despite rising violent threats.
Hoodline previously covered the jury selection in Colin Gray’s trial as well as Barrow County’s heightened school security measures following the shooting. Officials have not disclosed further details on Scroggins’s mental health status or the exact timeline for his transfer through federal proceedings in Alabama and Georgia.
