Kansas City Man Sentenced for Bomb Hoax at Federal Courthouse

KANSAS CITY, MO—Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Missouri man was sentenced in federal court today for making a false bomb threat over the telephone after he placed a hoax bomb at the Charles Evans Whittaker Courthouse.

Manuel Garcia, 66, a homeless man whose last known address was in Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Chief Judge Kathryn H. Vratil of the District of Kansas to 18 months in federal prison without parole after the Western District of Missouri judges recused themselves from the case.

On July 20, 2010, Garcia pleaded guilty to threatening the use of an explosive by use of a telephone.

On April 4, 2010, Garcia placed a soft-sided cooler at a side entrance to the United States Courthouse in Kansas City, Mo., with a note attached indicating that the cooler contained C4 and would explode at 7 a.m. The next morning, April 5, 2010, the package was discovered and determined to be a hoax explosive device. Also on the morning of April 5, 2010, Garcia called 911 and made a threat that there were three additional explosive devices inside the courthouse.

As a result of both of Garcia’s bomb threats, the federal courthouse was closed almost the entire day of April 5, 2010.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian P. Casey. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshal’s Service, Federal Protective Service and the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department.