Atascadero man guilty of making social media threats to SLO Women’s March participants
An Atascadero man who threatened to kill participants of the San Luis Obispo Women’s March on Facebook has pleaded guilty.
Daniel Joshua Phares pled guilty to making criminal threats for his August 17, 2017, social media threats against the women’s march participants.
“Threats like this, whether on social media or made in person, must be taken seriously and will be vigorously prosecuted by my office,” said SLO District Attorney Dan Dow. “Our staff has worked closely with the victims in this case to ensure that their concerns were heard. Any victims who wish to do so will also have an opportunity to address the Judge and Mr. Phares at the time of sentencing.”
On August 17, Phares wrote multiple threatening posts on the SLO Women’s March Facebook page just days after the violent attack in Charlottesville where a man drove into a crowd with a vehicle killing one person.
“I will kill every one of you and make you like it,” said Phares in a post. In another post, he described how awful and excruciating nerve gas is, “yeah except using it on the degenerate shitholes of the world would definitely be in the common good. We need to make sure America’s stockpiles are safe.”
Participants in the Facebook group contacted the San Luis Obispo Police Department.
Police say Phares admitted to making the posts and to taking them down later. Police found three firearms including two handguns in his house. Detectives also located an AR-15 rifle in a storage locker.
Phares will be sentenced on December 11, 2018. The maximum punishment for this offense is six months of actual custody in the county jail.
