ROANOKE, Va.–A man who made threats to two credit union employees during a telephone call by saying he would “blow up Roanoke” has been found guilty.
Brandon S. Hayward was convicted after a two-day jury trial in the Poff Federal Building, which houses a branch office of what is now the InFirst Federal Credit Union, where the call was received in August 2022.
According to the Roanoke Times, in June 2023 a judge dismissed the charges after the U.S. Bureau of Prisons missed several deadlines to have Hayward transferred from a local jail to a psychiatric facility for treatment.
U.S. District Judge Robert Ballou said at the time in a written opinion that the failures gave him no choice but to take the “drastic and severe” step of throwing out charges against the 35-year-old Hayward, the Times reported.
Charges Refiled
However, because the case was dismissed without prejudice, federal prosecutors were able to refile charges, which they did in December after Hayward made another call to the unlisted phone number of one of the credit union employees he had contacted in 2022, causing her to seek a protective order, the Times reported.
According to the report, at one point Hayward suffered from a bipolar schizoaffective disorder that made him unable to understand court proceedings or assist an attorney in his defense, according to court records.
“The dismissal of the charges came as he was waiting to be transferred to a secure psychiatric facility so that doctors could assess the probability of him being restored to competence,” the Roanoke Times added. “After the charges were refiled, he was found competent to stand trial.”
Hayward, who was returned to jail following Tuesday’s verdict, will be sentenced later.
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