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Description: Newport News, Virginia criminal law lawyer represented Defendant charged with making more than 60 threats to murder, rape, torture and otherwise harm state and federal elected officials, including numerous members of Congress and a former President of the United States.
Steve Cochran, 43, repeatedly threatened to murder, kidnap, torture, and/or rape elected officials and their loved ones. The threats were often highly graphic, expressed in unconditional language, and intended to influence the recipient to change his or her political views. For example, Cochran threatened to shoot a U.S. Senator. Cochran added that this was “not a threat” – it was a “guarantee.” He also threatened a Governor repeatedly that he would not “live past August” and his “wife and kids are in imminent danger.”
Cochran is a two-time convicted felon. He has prior felony convictions for unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and burglary with intent to commit larceny. Cochran also has an assault conviction stemming from repeated threats to kill his spouse.
Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson.
Assistant U.S. Attorney D. Mack Coleman prosecuted the case.
Interstate Communications with Threats of Injury in violation of 18 U.S.C. 875, which provides:
(a) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any demand or request for a ransom or reward for the release of any kidnapped person, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
(b) Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.
(c) Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.
(d) Whoever, with intent to extort from any person, firm, association, or corporation, any money or other thing of value, transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to injure the property or reputation of the addressee or of another or the reputation of a deceased person or any threat to accuse the addressee or any other person of a crime, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Infuencing, Impeding, and Retaliating Against a Federal Official by Threat, 18 U.S.C. 115(a)(1)(B), which provides:
(a)
(1) Whoever—
(A) assaults, kidnaps, or murders, or attempts or conspires to kidnap or murder, or threatens to assault, kidnap or murder a member of the immediate family of a United States official, a United States judge, a Federal law enforcement officer, or an official whose killing would be a crime under section 1114 of this title; or
(B) threatens to assault, kidnap, or murder, a United States official, a United States judge, a Federal law enforcement officer, or an official whose killing would be a crime under such section,
with intent to impede, intimidate, or interfere with such official, judge, or law enforcement officer while engaged in the performance of official duties, or with intent to retaliate against such official, judge, or law enforcement officer on account of the performance of official duties, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
(2) Whoever assaults, kidnaps, or murders, or attempts or conspires to kidnap or murder, or threatens to assault, kidnap, or murder, any person who formerly served as a person designated in paragraph (1), or a member of the immediate family of any person who formerly served as a person designated in paragraph (1), with intent to retaliate against such person on account of the performance of official duties during the term of service of such person, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
(b)
(1) The punishment for an assault in violation of this section is—
(A) a fine under this title; and
(B)
(i) if the assault consists of a simple assault, a term of imprisonment for not more than 1 year;
(ii) if the assault involved physical contact with the victim of that assault or the intent to commit another felony, a term of imprisonment for not more than 10 years;
(iii) if the assault resulted in bodily injury, a term of imprisonment for not more than 20 years; or
(iv) if the assault resulted in serious bodily injury (as that term is defined in section 1365 of this title, and including any conduct that, if the conduct occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, would violate section 2241 or 2242 of this title) or a dangerous weapon was used during and in relation to the offense, a term of imprisonment for not more than 30 years.
(2) A kidnapping, attempted kidnapping, or conspiracy to kidnap in violation of this section shall be punished as provided in section 1201 of this title for the kidnapping or attempted kidnapping of, or a conspiracy to kidnap, a person described in section 1201(a)(5) of this title.
(3) A murder, attempted murder, or conspiracy to murder in violation of this section shall be punished as provided in sections 1111, 1113, and 1117 of this title.
(4) A threat made in violation of this section shall be punished by a fine under this title or imprisonment for a term of not more than 10 years, or both, except that imprisonment for a threatened assault shall not exceed 6 years.
(c) As used in this section, the term—
(1) “Federal law enforcement officer” means any officer, agent, or employee of the United States authorized by law or by a Government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of any violation of Federal criminal law;
(2) “immediate family member” of an individual means—
(A) his spouse, parent, brother or sister, child or person to whom he stands in loco parentis; or
(B) any other person living in his household and related to him by blood or marriage;
(3) “United States judge” means any judicial officer of the United States, and includes a justice of the Supreme Court and a United States magistrate judge; and
(4) “United States official” means the President, President-elect, Vice President, Vice President-elect, a Member of Congress, a member-elect of Congress, a member of the executive branch who is the head of a department listed in 5 U.S.C. 101, or the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
(d) This section shall not interfere with the investigative authority of the United States Secret Service, as provided under sections 3056, 871, and 879 of this title.
(e) There is extraterritorial jurisdiction over the conduct prohibited by this section.
Outcome: Defendant was sentenced to 41 months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release and assessed $100.00.
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