KAIT reports that a jury in Jonesboro has found Brad Bartelt guilty of terroristic threatening in the incident in which he drove last December onto the Arkansas State University campus with a shotgun and threatened to kill himself. The jury acquitted him on five counts of aggravated assault.
The guilty verdict covered two charges — terroristic threatening in the first degree and making a terroristic threat. Both are felonies with maximum penalties of 6 and 30 years, respectively. The jury set punishment at six and 18 years. Judge Thomas Fowler said the sentences would run concurrently.
Bartelt testified during the trial that he intended no harm to others. He said he had intended to commit suicide as a symbol of his unhappiness over ASU’s response to his injury as a student at the ASU-Newport campus. The incident ended with no one hurt, but the campus responded to it as an “active shooter” episode that put the campus in lockdown for a period of time. At one point, Bartelt threatened to shoot a propane tank in his truck.