Man sentenced for making hoax threat call to Vinita school

A man from New Mexico, who made fake threats to the Vinita Oklahoma High School in 2021, was sentenced to seven years in prison.

21-year-old James Thomas Andrew McCarty plead guilty to charges in two separate indictments relating to hoax calls that elicited police SWAT responses.

Authorities said McCarty used names of real students at the high schools he called. McCarty also pleaded guilty to two separate crimes of aggravated identity theft since he used the identity of an actual individual during these calls.

On January 25, 2021, McCarty made repetitive hoax calls to two different high schools.

In the first series of hoax calls to a high school in Indiana, McCarty called school officials representing that he was a student at the school, while using the real name of a student there, and that he was outside the school with an AR-15 rifle, a Glock handgun, and propane bottles ready to shoot at the school.

In the second series of hoax calls about 20 minutes later to a high school in Vinita, Oklahoma, McCarty called school officials representing that he was a student at the school, while using the real name of a student there, and that he was outside of the school with an AR-15 rifle, a Glock handgun, and propane tanks ready to shoot the propane tanks before coming into the school