Iowa City man charged with threatening to cut off prosecutors’ faces

An Iowa City man initially charged in state court has been charged in federal court with threatening Johnson County prosecutors, an Iowa radio station, county officials in Oregon, FBI agents and President Joe Biden.

Samuel P. McElmeel, 32, was indicted last month in U.S. District Court for three counts of an interstate transmission of a threat. He is accused of threatening “Victim #1 and #2” — Johnson County Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith and assistant prosecutor Jeff Brunelle — on June 5 by sending emails stating he would “cut off their faces” and harm a prosecutor’s family, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Johnson County District Court.

The emails also contained racial epithets and multiple threats against the prosecutors, the warrant affidavit stated.

McElmeel also is accused of sending emails June 8 to “Victim #3,” who was not identified in the indictment, and threatening to “stick a dull knife” into the person as McElmeel tortures him or her for “not giving me any info.”

According to the warrant affidavit, Brunelle reported June 9 to an Iowa City police investigator that McElmeel had sent more threatening emails overnight. There were 31 emails from him to other members of the Johnson County Attorney’s Office and county officials in Oregon, FBI agents and others. McElmeel also made threats to kill a child and bomb the United States. Over the following week, McElmeel made a threat to kill Biden, the affidavit stated.

On July 12, he also sent emails to “Victim #4,” stating among other things that “You will die for your lies no matter what, I suggest you listen and comply to me to the fullest,” according to the indictment. It’s unclear the identity of Victim #4.

McElmeel also sent additional emails with threatening, alarming, annoying and harassing messages to KCJJ Radio, a police investigator, the Johnson County prosecutors and Oregon officials and prosecutors, according to the affidavit.

In the emails directed to KCJJ, McElmeel demanded it take down online posts about the charges filed against him in Johnson County Associate District Court. He was charged with harassment, but the charges were dismissed last month because federal prosecutors were charging him instead. In the emails, he threatened to “destroy and torture everything related to you” and “cut your flesh.”

Last week during McElmeel’s arraignment, he pleaded not guilty to all three counts. U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen B. Jackson Jr. set his trial for Feb. 26. Jackson also ordered McElmeel to remain in jail, as requested by prosecutors, pending his detention hearing, which has been reset to Jan. 16.

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