Missouri man gets 2 years for threats to kill California DA, bomb schools
A Missouri man has been sentenced to two years in federal prison for threatening to kill a California district attorney and bomb schools in San Luis Obispo County, according to prosecutors.
David William Platek, 43, of Springfield, pleaded guilty to making threats in interstate communications. U.S. District Judge Megan Blair Benton also ordered three years of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence.
The threats were directed at San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow. Platek sent more than 125 pages of text messages to a friend living in another state, threatening Dow and schools in the county, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.
Court records show Platek threatened to kill Dow and members of his family in retaliation for identity theft charges that were filed against him in San Luis Obispo County in 2019 and later dismissed.
In one message, Platek wrote that he would assassinate Dow before carrying out a “large explosion” in San Luis Obispo County that would kill 400 people, “mostly children.” He also threatened to blow up a private Catholic school and said he would focus on killing as many people as possible.
Court records say Platek also threatened Dow’s family and discussed traveling to California. He claimed to have ammunition and said he intended to obtain materials for explosives.
Platek was charged with identity theft in San Luis Obispo County in 2019, but the case was later dismissed. After moving to Springfield, he blamed Dow for the prosecution, what he called his “self-exile” to Missouri and his inability to find employment, prosecutors said.
Federal investigators determined that Platek was in Greene County, Missouri, when he sent the messages, while the recipient was in another state. He was arrested in Springfield on Jan. 2, 2025, and agents seized the phone used to send the threats.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
