Courtesy of the 17th Judicial District
Audio By Carbonatix
In an effort to avoid prison time, an Adams County man received more prison time.
Adams County District Judge Marcelo Kopcow sentenced 47-year-old Steven Sandoval to three years in prison on June 4 after Sandoval pleaded guilty to a felony charge of false report of explosives earlier in May, according to an announcement from the 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
In what reads like either a bad action movie plot or a chuckle-ridden satire (depending on your movie taste), Sandoval called in a bomb threat to the county’s courthouse in Brighton from a nearby King Soopers payphone on the same day he was scheduled to be sentenced for a felony charge of identity theft.
The plot was technically successful — if only for a moment.
The bomb threat caused the courthouse to evacuate around 1,000 people for four hours. Approximately 100 people were also evacuated from the King Soopers as police traced the call, according to District Attorney’s office.
The Brighton Police Department already knew Sandoval and quickly identified him as the caller, leading to another arrest and another guilty plea.
He was sentenced to an additional two years in prison for the identity theft charge (which probably involved a theatrical plot that didn’t go as planned, either). Those two sentences will run consecutively, so a quick phone call turned two years in prison into five.
“Threats of violence — whether real or implied ‚ disrupt essential public services and put our community at risk. This sentence sends a clear message that such actions will be prosecuted and those who make them held accountable,” a statement from the District Attorney’s office reads.
