A former Hollister resident accused of making a false bomb
threat, threatening to kill a San Benito judge and threatening to
kill his wife pleaded not guilty to all charges in Superior Court
on Tuesday.
Hollister – A former Hollister resident accused of making a false bomb threat, threatening to kill a San Benito judge and threatening to kill his wife pleaded not guilty to all charges in Superior Court on Tuesday.
Thomas Wayne Sawyer, 45, is scheduled to appear in court again May 17 for a preliminary hearing, according to court records. He was extradited from his home in McLoud, Okla. on March 25 for allegedly threatening Superior Court Judge Steven Sanders in February and making a bomb threat against the San Benito Superior Courthouse in March. He also allegedly threatened to kill his wife in October of 2003. He is being held at San Benito County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail. If convicted of all charges, he could face a maximum of four years and eight months in prison.
Sawyer’s court-appointed public defender, Rosanne McLane, said she doesn’t believe the charges against her client.
“It was probably not true,” she said. “I mean, the statements that were made in the police reports – those people have police records themselves.… I think everybody’s making much too big a deal about this.”
District Attorney John Sarsfield declined to give the Free Lance a copy of the police report, citing the ongoing investigation against Sawyer, but he disputed McLane’s claim.
“I don’t see anything in here that suggests it has anything to do with other people who have had brushes with the law,” Sarsfield said, adding that the report relies on testimony from counselors at a halfway house Sawyer stayed at.
“Sawyer made certain statements and (counselors) duly reported to law enforcement officials what he would do,” Sarsfield said. “They alleged that he threatened to kill the judge and expected to be killed by the bailiff. He also said he was angry because the people of California are too thin-skinned.”
According to Sarsfield’s reading of the police report, counselors overheard Sawyer’s plans to kill Sanders in February. In March, a counselor reported the bomb threat.
“(Sawyer) made a telephone call to one of the counselors and said ‘I could blow the courthouse up,'” Sarsfield said.
Sawyer has been making threats for more than 15 years, according to court documents. He also has a prior arrest in San Benito County for making a terroristic threat last November, according to jail personnel. His wife has received multiple restraining orders against Sawyer, according to court records. She testified in a 1999 family law court case that Sawyer abused her, one time beating her so severely that she prematurely gave birth to her child in 1988. She also testified that he ran over her toes with a vehicle on three separate occasions, and told her if she ever left him he would take her daughters away from her.
