NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A federal court jury deliberated for less than an hour Wednesday before convicting a Texas neo-Nazi for posting an online threat against Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk.
The jury found David Aaron Bloyed, 60, an admitted member of the antisemitic Goyim Defense League, guilty on one count of communicating a threat in interstate commerce for posting an image of Funk with the caption "getting the rope."
At the time, Funk was prosecuting Goyim Defense League member Ryan McCann for an assault on a Nashville bartender during a street brawl last July in downtown Nashville.
EXCLUSIVE: Hear from one of the jurors on NC5 at 6 p.m.
Bloyed faces up to five years in federal prison when sentenced.
"Hate speech, while it is permitted in our system, crosses the line when it turns to threats of violence — and that's what happened here," prosecutor Phil Wehby told the jury during closing arguments. "It became a crime."
Funk, Wehby argued, was targeted for "simply doing his job."
"This man threatened to lynch the district attorney, and he must be held to account," the prosecutor concluded.
Wehby and fellow prosecutor Josh Kurtzman presented evidence that the post, which Bloyed made under the anonymous handle of "Schwetty Balls," was part of a series of escalating series of threats aimed at securing the release of McCann from jail.
Those other threats targeted the bartender, Deago Buck, and the owner of the bar that employed him. One post highlighted the network of downtown bars operated by the company for which Buck worked.
"That's called 100 million bucks of liability," Bloyed wrote, including an Israeli flag to imply that the bars were somehow linked to Jews.
"Any nut could walk in and stop them all," the post continued. "They will listen to you, suggest that they get their heads out of their asses and get our guy out before some nut does come out of the woodwork and does something holoocasutic (sic).
The post added, "The owner will fold if we put the heat on him, and he will tell that Fa**ot jew DA to let Ryan go."
Bloyed did not face any charges for threats against the bartender nor the bar owner.
The neo-Nazi also posted about an image of a person being hanged along with the question: "Will you survive the Day of the Rope?"
He separately posted about the "Rope list" growing "by a few more Nashville jews today."
FBI Special Agent Angelo Defeo testified that references to the "Day of the Rope" and a "Rope list" come from the racist novel The Turner Diaries, which envisions a white supremacist takeover that results in minorities and public officials being hanged.
Still, in his closing argument, Federal Public Defender Will Allensworth told the jury that the only post that specifically referenced Funk — with the phrase "getting the rope" — was described by Metro police investigators as a "vague threat" and a "loose threat."
"This post does not mean Mr. Bloyed was going to run around Nashville with a noose," Allensworth said, noting that there was no evidence that the neo-Nazi ever traveled to Tennessee.
Allensworth and fellow defense lawyer Mary Kathryn Harcombe argued that anonymous online commentators often discuss politics by saying "crude inflammatory things that they don't literally mean."
"It is not a crime to say racist things or anti-Jewish things," Allensworth told the jury.
"It is disgusting, but it's not a crime."
In the end, it was an argument that the jury rejected.
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