California man arrested in Oklahoma on weapons hoax charges
The Associated Press - March 26, 2019 3:43 pm
A photo of Darnell Ray Owens copied from his driver's license.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A California man has been arrested in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on charges of mailing letters containing a white powder and threatening to kill police and government officials, federal authorities said Monday.
Darnell Ray Owens, 32, of Sacramento, was arrested Friday and will be returned to California to face charges of making interstate threats and a biological weapons hoax in an apparent attempt to get back at his father.
He does not yet have an attorney.
He sent one hoax letter with a harmless white powder to a Dallas church, threatening to kill the pastor, and another to a Sacramento County revenue department, according to court documents filed in federal court in Sacramento. Among other targets of about 50 letters and online complaints over the last year were a Sacramento TV station and the county’s prosecutor.
It was all part of an apparent quarrel with his father, FBI Special Agent Stacy Landrus said in an affidavit.
The letters had return addresses from his father and others associated with his father in what Landrus described as an effort to have them erroneously blamed.
Each charge could bring up to five years in prison.
