OXFORD, Madam — A jury has acquitted a Mississippi man of charges of threaten to kill Republican Senator Roger Wicker during a confrontation with one of Wicker’s relatives.
Six women and six men deliberated for about an hour and a half Tuesday before unanimously finding William Carl Sappington not guilty of threatening a U.S. official with injury or death, the Northeast Mississippi Commission said. Daily diary reported.
Sappington’s attorney, Tom Levidiotis, said federal prosecutors failed to prove the alleged threat was credible.
“There is no trace or evidence that this had anything to do with (the senator’s) official duties,” Levidiotis said. “Roger Wicker has no idea that this man even exists.”
Following the verdict in the two-day trial, Sappington was released from prison for the first time since his arrest on the charges in May 2023.
Conviction would have been punishable by up to 10 years in federal prison.
Sappington was accused of going to the Hickory Flat home of the senator’s second cousin, George Wicker, on April 26, 2023. Prosecutors believed the testimony of George Wicker, 83, who said Sappington asked if he was related to the senator and then said, “Tell him I’m going to kill him.”
During an FBI interview, Sappington denied making a direct threat to Roger Wicker, who has served in the Senate since 2007.
“If I went there to kill him, he’d be dead,” Sappington said during the 2023 FBI taped interview played to the jury. “But that’s not what I’m for. I don’t even want to kill him with the law.”
Sappington said he accused the senator of being part of a conspiracy to cover up an aggravated kidnapping plot against him. In February 2014, Sappington was arrested for the attack on his own brother. He tried to flee and was bitten by a police dog. Authorities took him to a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, to treat injuries he sustained during the arrest.
Prosecutors said George Wicker was locked in his home and scared. During the 911 call, he said Sappington was a “crazy man.” But the first police officer to arrive at the home found George Wicker in his carport, arguing with Sappington, who was standing about 15 feet (4.6 meters) away in the driveway. Sappington said he tried to leave, but George Wicker kept calling him back.
George Wicker was adamant in his testimony that the incident occurred in the morning. But a police report showed it happened around 6:00 p.m. During a 45-second call to Benton County 911, George Wicker was heard twice saying he was going to kill Sappington.