Grand Junction Man Uses the ‘Friendless’ Defense to Fight Charges Against Him

It was the first of two cases involving men in Grand Junction, CO making threats on Facebook. Now Kenneth Wheeler is making his argument of why he shouldn't go to jail for threatening children on Facebook.

In March 2012 Kenneth Wheeler was busted for making threats on Facebook against Grand Junction Police officers and their children. Someone who saw the post tipped off the police leading to his arrest. He was charged with making interstate or foreign threatening communications.

Kenneth was in Rome, Italy when he allegedly made the posts. He believed his comments were safe because he was in a foreign country. That was proven an incorrect assumption when he was met by federal agents at Grand Junction Regional Airport. Now he is getting some time in front of a judge.

On Thursday January 3, 2013 his lawyer argued to a judge, "Mr. Wheeler had eliminated all of the people he had friended on Facebook. It means you are not communicating with anybody. At some level, it means nobody is receiving the communication." The federal judge, who doesn't use Facebook, denied the request to have evidence suppressed.

Mitchell Kusick, an on-line student at Colorado Mesa University, also made Facebook threats in 2012. He wanted to be known as 'the guy who killed Obama'.