The man who invoked February's Florida school massacre in his Facebook threats to shoot North Little Rock high school students and to snipe police officers will be released from jail today after a Pulaski County jury endorsed probation over prison time for the 31-year-old defendant.
Jurors deliberated about 10 minutes on Wednesday to find Jesse Gunther Pikschus guilty as charged of evidence tampering and two counts of first-degree terroristic threatening.
The 10 women and two men spent about 22 minutes considering punishment before calling on Circuit Judge Herb Wright to impose probation. Prosecutors asked the jury for the maximum penalty, 18 years in prison.
The judge ordered two years of probation with a $1,500 fine and 150 hours of community service.
With testimony from Pikschus' mother, Brenda Helm, and brother-in-law John Sanson, defense attorney Brandy Turner said the posts were a misguided effort by her client to vent some anger.
Turner painted Pikschus, a 10th-grade special-education dropout, as a somewhat feeble-minded, but essentially good-hearted, man who is sometimes prone to acting impulsively without considering the consequences of his actions.
She also noted that while Pikschus, who is white, used racial slurs, his girlfriend is black and so are some of his relatives.
Helm told jurors that Pikschus had an IQ below 70 and had the emotional maturity of a third- or fourth-grader.
The Facebook threats were made under profiles faked by Pikschus, and Sanson told jurors he was "1,000 percent" certain that Pikschus had been trying to get Pikschus' friend, Devon Britt Johnson, 24, in trouble after some quarrel the men had involving Pikschus' girlfriend, Maquita Raechele Conner, 21.
Pikschus is devoted to Conner even though his family considers her to be a negative influence, Sanson said.
One of the posts was made under Johnson's name, and the three were living together when Pikschus was arrested in April after a two-month investigation by North Little Rock police.
The threat against the high school was made two days after 17 students and faculty members were gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. Pikschus' post directly referred to the slayings.
"I love my guns. Time for Round 2 of Florida today. Am going tew [sic] shoot up and kill all black n * * * * I see at North Little Rock High School," the post, shown to jurors, states. "Mr. President and vice president I will be coming fore [sic] you f*** next."
The second post, ascribed to Johnson, warned police that he was going to shoot officers and "n***s" from on top of a coin-operated laundry on Camp Robinson Road and that he had "ammo for days." Both posts were accompanied with photographs of large guns.
Deputy prosecutor Christy Bjornson told jurors that there could be no doubt about Pikschus' intentions.
"He knew this was a crime. He knew it was wrong," she said. "He knew this would terrify people."
The posts, which were discovered by a counselor, sparked immediate concern among school officials and police. The threats also came at a tense time for the community. Police were already on guard because of a police shooting about a month earlier.
The posts prompted police to further beef up their presence at the school while taking extra steps to ensure their own safety, according to testimony.
Deputy prosecutor Robbie Jones asked jurors to consider how much effort Pikschus had put into faking the Facebook profiles. He had to find profile pictures, register the profiles with Facebook and then write each of the messages.
"He typed in every single one of those words," Jones said. "The only reason you do this is to freak people out ... to scare them. Each one of those steps was a conscious decision by Jesse Pikschus."
Further proof of guilt was the way Pikschus deliberately wiped his cellphone's memory just as he turned it over to police, the prosecutor said.
Detective Gary Jones said he could see the phone deleting its memory when Pikschus handed it to him.
Pikschus at first denied knowing anything about the posts, but Facebook was able to pinpoint Pikschus' home at 3718 Marion St., as the location where the profiles were created, Jones said. The phone numbers associated with the profiles were also Pikschus'.
Pikschus, who did not testify, confessed to making the threats in a video-recorded interview with the detective after his April arrest, which was played for the jury. Pikschus told the detective that he had no intention to carry out any threats and that he was sincerely sorry for the fear he had provoked.
"I made it, but I didn't mean nothing by it," he said. "It was supposed to be a joke, but it didn't come out as a joke. I don't think before I act sometimes, and my mind gets me in trouble sometimes. I don't think about the consequences."
Metro on 09/20/2018