Texas Man Enters Plea Agreement for Threatening to Bomb Islamic Center in Murfreesboro

Javier Alan Correa, 25, of Corpus Christi, Texas, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Nashville today to obstructing persons in the free exercise of religious beliefs, announced David Rivera, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee.

U.S. District Judge Aleta A. Trauger sentenced Correa to five years’ probation and ordered that the first eight months be spent in home detention. Correa must also submit to drug testing and substance abuse monitoring and enroll in an adult education program.

According to the plea agreement, Correa admitted that on September 5, 2011, he called on a cellular phone from Corpus Christi, Texas, to the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and left a threatening, explicative-ridden voice message saying, among other things, “On September 11, 2011, there’s going to be a bomb in the building.”

Correa told the court that on the night of September 5, 2011, he had been home alone and drinking beer and that while watching a program on CNN entitled “Unwelcome: The Muslims Next Door,” he became enraged and placed the threatening call to the mosque in Murfreesboro.

This case was investigated by the FBI. The government is represented by Assistant United States Attorney Blanche B. Cook and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Adriana Vieco.