Plea deal in talks for Portsmouth school shooting threat suspect, court documents show

PORTSMOUTH — Federal prosecutors and the defense for a man charged in April with threatening to "shoot up" Portsmouth High School are working “to seek a pre-indictment resolution of the case,” according to electronic court documents.

Kyle Hendrickson, 25 at the time of his arrest, faces a federal charge of interstate threatening communication and a state charge of criminal threatening with a firearm, after he posted a video to Snapchat threatening to shoot up the city high school. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire previously stated investigators found a cache of weapons in the car Hendrickson was sitting in when he filmed the video threat on PHS school grounds.

The Berwick, Maine, resident, who was dropping off his mother at Portsmouth High School when he allegedly filmed the video, has told police the video was a joke.

What court documents say about next steps

Hendrickson, according to Jessica Kuron, spokesperson for New Hampshire U.S. Attorney Jane Young, remains in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Court records state the time for prosecutors to potentially indict Hendrickson, who was arrested by criminal complaint, has twice been extended since his arrest. The most recent extension was agreed to by all parties this month and approved by U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Johnstone on July 17.

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“The United States and the defendant’s counsel agree that it is in their mutual interest to engage in discussion regarding a possible disposition of this case and for the government to produce pre-indictment discovery,” court documents state.

Kuron, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Hampshire declined to comment whether a plea deal is being negotiated or if the case will go to trial, as the investigation remains ongoing.

Prosecutors have 30 days to indict defendants after they are arrested on criminal complaints, though the timeline to do so can be pushed back, Kuron said.

In early May, the original deadline to indict Hendrickson was pushed back to July 18, though the new extension now moves the next deadline to Sept. 18.

“The government and counsel for the defendant believe that the ends of justice will be best served by extending the date by which indictment is required, and continuing the date of the Show Cause Hearing, in order to facilitate those discussions and potentially conserve grand jury and judicial resources,” the court motion to extend the time to indictment states.

A show cause hearing for Hendrickson’s case is currently scheduled Sept. 19 at 9 a.m.

Hendrickson faces felony charge

Authorities allege that on April 12, Hendrickson, wielding a handgun, posted a Snapchat video from inside a car outside of Portsmouth High School that contained a message: “Imma gonna shoot up the school.”

That night, the Portsmouth school district announced all city schools would be closed the day following as a precaution, while the Portsmouth Police Department, in partnership with the FBI, set out to find Hendrickson.

The hunt ended in Portland the afternoon of July 13, when police in Maine found and arrested him. The following week, after being held in Maine for several days, he was booked at the Portsmouth police station and that same day made his first federal court appearance in Concord.

Young, New Hampshire’s U.S. attorney, announced in the wake of Hendrickson’s arrest that investigators located weapons and ammunition in the vehicle he was in, a 2014 Ford Explorer.

Court documents note that the items recovered from the SUV included a black outside waist handgun holster, a Kittery Trading Post bag with four boxes of assorted ammunition, a Sig Romeo 7 red dot sight for a modern sporting rifle, six buckshot shotgun rounds and a box of 22 caliber rimfire ammunition. Camouflage body armor was found in the back trunk, along with a box of 50 rounds of 40 caliber Smith & Wesson ammunition, a box of five shotgun rounds, an unloaded Chiappa Firearms shotgun and an unloaded Radical 5.56 RG15 assault rifle. Police additionally located a 556 magazine and 13 rounds of 40-caliber Smith & Wesson ammunition within a handgun magazine in the car’s center console.

An affidavit alleges that Hendrickson, when police found him in Portland, told authorities that he had an AR-15 in the back of his vehicle.

The federal charge carries a potential prison sentence of up to five years, in addition to upwards of three years of supervised release and a fine not to exceed $250,000.

The state charge of criminal threatening is a Class B felony punishable by three-and-a-half to seven years in jail.

Attorney Murdoch Walker II represents Hendrickson in the matter and did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Plea deal for Portsmouth NH school shooting threat suspect in talks