A Chambersburg man is sitting in Franklin County Jail without bail after police say he threatened to kill several people overnight and, during a recorded phone call, could be heard racking the slide of a gun to prove he had a firearm in hand. Julio Cesar Roldan-Martinez now faces three misdemeanor counts of terroristic threats with intent to terrorize another following an incident reported just after 8:15 a.m. Friday at an apartment in the 100 block of North Franklin Street in Chambersburg.
According to Tri-State Alert, police were called to the residence after Roldan-Martinez argued with a victim during the night and then called the victims' cell phones repeatedly, according to police. Three victims and a juvenile reportedly left the house out of fear before one of them answered a call from Roldan-Martinez just before 8:00 a.m. Friday, the outlet reports. Police recorded that call, which captured Roldan-Martinez allegedly threatening to bring his guns to the victims' home and commit a shooting, and to get his guns and shoot the victims if they returned, police say. During the call, he allegedly manipulated the slide of a firearm to prove he had it in hand, according to police.
How Police Could Legally Record the Call
Pennsylvania is generally a strict two-party consent state for recorded communications, but state law carves out an exception for officers doing their jobs. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 5704, Pennsylvania's Wiretapping and Electronic Surveillance Control Act explicitly exempts law enforcement officers acting in the performance of official duties from standard consent requirements when intercepting and recording communications during an investigation, which explains the evidentiary basis for the call captured in this case. Police say Roldan-Martinez had access to pistols and rifles, a detail that helped shape the urgency of the response.
The case carries docket number MJ-39201-CR-0000362-2026 and incident number C2026-09757. Under Pennsylvania's terroristic threats statute, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2706, a first-degree misdemeanor conviction carries a statutory maximum sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, though the charges against Roldan-Martinez remain unproven allegations at this stage.
Judge Cites Victim Safety in Denying Bail
Magisterial District Judge Glenn Manns denied bail to Roldan-Martinez, ruling that no bail conditions were available to ensure the safety of the victims. That authority traces back to Article I, Section 14 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which allows courts to deny bail if no condition or combination of release conditions short of imprisonment will reasonably assure the safety of any person and the community.
Manns, who presides over Magisterial District 39-2-01 covering Chambersburg Borough, spent 28 years as an officer with the Chambersburg Police Department, from 1976 until his retirement in 2004, before being elected to the bench in 2011, according to Ballotpedia. That district serves as the initial court venue for local criminal preliminary arraignments before cases move on to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas.
Firearms Raise the Stakes in Domestic Threat Cases
Pennsylvania police responding to domestic violence incidents have broad authority to act quickly. Under 18 Pa.C.S. § 2711, officers have statutory authorization to make warrantless arrests when probable cause exists for terroristic threats or assault, even when the alleged threat wasn't directly witnessed by responding officers.
The presence of firearms in this case reflects a pattern that domestic violence advocates have long tracked statewide. Statewide statistics from the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Domestic Violence show that firearms were involved in 67% of domestic violence fatalities in Pennsylvania during 2022, underscoring why threats involving a gun are treated with heightened urgency by courts and police alike.
Roldan-Martinez remains incarcerated in Franklin County Jail, a facility with a design capacity of 500 inmates that maintained an average daily population of 266 inmates during federal compliance evaluations in late 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The case adds to a string of recent terroristic threats cases moving through Franklin County's court system, including one in August when Chambersburg police responded to an apartment in the 600 block of Cumberland Avenue after a suspect allegedly entered a woman's home without permission, a case Hoodline detailed in its earlier coverage. Violent crime accounts for roughly 17% of all annual arrests made by the Chambersburg Borough Police Department, according to data compiled by Police Scorecard.
