MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A former West Virginia University student accused of threatening to commit a mass shooting was acquitted Friday following a three-day trial in Monongalia County Circuit Court.
After roughly four hours of deliberation, the jury found Zachary Ryan Johnson not guilty on two charges of making a terroristic threat and a lesser included misdemeanor of threatening communication by use of an electronic device.
“I think the jury took a lot of time to consider all the evidence and in the end, they found that Zach Johnson really did not intend to harm anyone and certainly didn’t intend to coerce or intimidate anyone under the statute,” Defense Attorney Mark Gaydos said. “He made a dumb statement, but that was it and that’s not criminal and this jury so found.”
Following the verdict, Judge Phillip Gaujot, who presided over the case, thanked the jurors for performing their civic duty.
Johnson was accused of sending a Snapchat message on Aug. 22, 2018, that said, “I feel like doing a mass shooting.”
He testified Thursday and admitted sending the message. He also said looking back, it was a poorly chosen joke.
He was also charged for allegedly making two similar statements the next day in class at WVU’s Health Sciences Center, where he was a junior in the school’s dental hygiene program.
On the first day of trial, Johnson’s former classmate Shelby Hawk testified she heard him make the statements in class. During his testimony, Johnson denied making those comment. Two of his classmates testified on his behalf and said they were sitting closer to him than Hawk was and did not hear what she said she heard.
Making a terroristic threat is a law of prevention, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Rob Zak told the jury. It’s about noticing something small and preventing something catastrophic.
In his closing argument, Zak reminded the jury multiple people went to the dental hygiene program’s director, Amy Funk, on Aug. 23 to talk about changes in Johnson’s behavior.
In the weeks leading up to the alleged incident, Johnson had an “absolutely terrible” week, the jury heard during the trial. He had two flat tires within 24 hours, had his car towed from the parking lot where he worked, argued with his managers and was having some trouble in school.
Zak said these events left Johnson angry and frustrated and he wasn’t in a joking mode when he sent the message.
Gaydos disagreed, saying, “What the state is asking you to do is make this leap of faith that because a guy has two flat tires … that suddenly he is now in the realm of a person willing and intentionally making a threat to coerce or intimidate his friends.”
Story by William Dean of the Dominion Post