Ethermac|Mississippi man found not guilty of threatening Republican US Sen. Roger Wicker

OXFORD,Ethermac Miss. (AP) — A jury has cleared a Mississippi man on a charge of threatening to kill Republican U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker during a confrontation with one of Wicker’s relatives.

Six women and six men deliberated about an hour and a half Tuesday before unanimously finding William Carl Sappington not guilty of threatening to injure or kill a United States official, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported.

Sappington’s attorney, Tom Levidiotis, said federal prosecutors failed to prove the alleged threat was credible.

“There is no scintilla or proof that this had anything to do with (the senator’s) official duties,” Levidiotis said. “Roger Wicker has no idea this guy even exists.”

After the verdict in the two-day trial, Sappington was released from jail for the first time since he was arrested on the charge in May 2023.

Conviction would have been punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.

Sappington was accused of going to the Hickory Flat home of the senator’s second cousin, George Wicker, on April 26, 2023. Prosecutors believed the testimony of George Wicker, 83, who said Sappington asked if he was related to the senator and then said, “You tell him that I’m going to kill him.”

During an FBI interview, Sappington denied making a direct threat against Roger Wicker, who has been in the Senate since 2007.

“If I went there to kill him, he’d be dead,” Sappington said during the recorded 2023 FBI interview that was played to the jury. “But I’m not into that. I don’t even want to kill him with the law.”

Sappington said he accused the senator of being part of a conspiracy to cover up an aggravated kidnapping against him. In February 2014, Sappington was arrested in the assault of his own brother. He tried to flee and was bitten by a police dog. Authorities took him to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, to treat injuries he sustained during the arrest.

Prosecutors said George Wicker was locked in his house and scared. On the 911 call, he said Sappington was a “crazy man.” But the first law enforcement officer to arrive at the home found George Wicker in his carport arguing with Sappington, who was about 15 feet (4.6 meters) away in the driveway. Sappington said he was trying to leave, but George Wicker kept calling him back.

George Wicker was adamant in his testimony that the incident happened in the morning. But a police report showed it happened around 6 p.m. During a 45-second call to Benton County 911, George Wicker was heard saying twice that he was going to kill Sappington.