Judge releases man who threatened Va. Tech alums

ROANOKE—A judge ordered psychiatric treatment yesterday as he released a man suffering from paranoid schizophrenia who had pleaded guilty to sending an e-mail threat to two Virginia Tech alumni on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the university’s mass shootings.

U.S. District Judge James Turk granted the defense request to sentence Johnmarlo Balasta Napa, 28, of Las Vegas to the nearly 15 months he had already served on a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce.

He will be on supervised release for three years, with a probation officer monitoring his mental health treatment.

U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley contended that Napa posed a threat and asked for the maximum term of about three years, but said afterward she thought the sentence was fair.

“I feel that the time that you have served is reasonable and just and fair considering all the circumstances in this case,“ Turk said.

Napa, a slight man described as respectful and obedient as a child in the Philippines, tearfully apologized yesterday for hurting the two women.

“I was not out to harm or kill people,“ he said. “It hurts me to know that’s what is being thought of me.“

The defense claimed Napa sent the e-mails from a Nevada State College computer only to draw attention to violent Internet postings.

But Dudley portrayed him as someone who idolized Seung-Hui Cho, the student gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech as well as himself on April 16, 2007. She noted that Napa wore the same shaved haircut and bought the same guns Cho used.