Trial set for Stimson Hall bomb threat case

Jose A. Tecuatl, former resident advisor at WSU’s Stimson Hall, pleaded not guilty in superior court Friday morning to three charges of threatening to bomb or injure property. Tecuatl was scheduled for a Nov. 13 trial.

He was represented by Pullman Attorney Michael Pettit.

Tecuatl has posted the bond bail for pre-trial release and told the court Friday morning he will be residing in Oak Harbor while awaiting resolution of the case.

Family members and WSU students were present in court for the arraignment.

The charges allege Tecuatl, who reported the bomb threats to campus police last week, was the person who had made the threats which involved a written note and scratch marks on walls at the residence hall.

As condition of release, Tecuatl was ordered by Judge Gary Libey to not go within 1,000 feet of the WSU campus or any of the branch campuses around the state.

Tecuatl was resident advisor for the third floor of Stimson Hall.

The arrest report alleged Tecuatl was the person who had reported a series of bomb threats on campus going back to Aug. 2.

WSU Police Sgt. Bryan Jacobson’s probable cause report said Tecuatl became a suspect after officers went to his room at Stimson Hall with a warrant and seized a Toshiba laptop computer. Another warrant was obtained to make a forensic search of the laptop. The report alleges the search turned up the text of a note which Tecuatl had told an officer had been placed under his door at Stimson three days earlier.

Among other things, the note referred to earlier bomb threat episodes which allegedly listed the room numbers of other residence advisors at Stimson. It said “you took me as a joke, now it’s time to finish what I started.”

It added “this will all make sense the day it ends.”

Officers Aug. 21 responded to a bomb threat which was scratched into the wall of a west stairwell to the second floor of Stimson with a swastika next to it. Later that day they received a report of more swastikas and “bomb or bom” etched in the wall at another location in the building.

Early the next day more graffiti and an alarm activation were reported at Stimson. An Aug. 23 report made by Tecuatl said a message left with a marker on a white board in the Stimson library listed six room numbers with five of them the numbers of resident advisors in the building.