Judge won't lower bond for SIU student in threat case

EDWARDSVILLE -- A judge sided with prosecutors Friday and refused to reduce the $1 million bond for a Southern Illinois University student accused of writing a note threatening a "murderous rampage" similar to the one at Virginia Tech.

Madison County Associate Judge James Hackett appeared unconvinced by claims from an attorney for Olutosin Oduwole that his 22-year-old client posed no public threat and would appear for future court appearances, if released. Philip Dennis also called the bond "excessive and extreme."

Oduwole had pledged to behave, telling Hackett by a closed-circuit feed from the jail that "I'd like to assure you I'm not a threat to the campus of SIU."

"If I should be released, there won't be any violent acts of any form or shape," Oduwole, dressed in striped jail garb, said as his parents watched him on a monitor.

Prosecutor John Fischer insisted that Olutosin deserved the bond he received because of the supposed threat, which was scrawled on paper that also included rap lyrics, combined with the aspiring rapper's alleged bid to buy firepower online.

Olutosin, a U.S. citizen, also has a Nigerian passport, Fischer said.

"The state has to take this extremely seriously," Fischer argued in pressing his "strong objection" to slashing Oduwole's bond.

Dennis cast his client as a "churchgoing Christian, not a fundamentalist extremist." Oduwole also has worked with the homeless and with his mother at an adult-care center in Missouri, is the newly elected president of a fraternity at the university and would like to continue his education, perhaps in Missouri.

Dennis rebuffed concerns that his client had terrorist intentions.

Afterward, Dennis insisted -- first to about a dozen Oduwole supporters who waited outside the hearing, then to reporters -- that Oduwole's legal troubles were traceable to his client's foreign-sounding last name and the "terror shock" he said has gripped the country.

"This all started because of his name," Dennis said. "Ever see anyone in the Midwest be charged with making a terrorist threat? It's new, and it's going to get worse. It's going to get uglier.

"I defy anyone to find someone who can call this a terrorist threat."

Oduwole was charged last week with attempting to make the threat in the note police say was found July 20 in his disabled car on the university's Edwardsville campus. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a court appearance next week on unrelated fraud and theft counts.

Investigators said the note demanded payment to a PayPal account, threatening that "if this account doesn't reach $50,000 in the next 7 days then a murderous rampage similar to the VT shooting will occur at another highly populated university. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!"

The note did not make any direct reference to targeting SIU's campus, police said.

About a week earlier, a gun dealer had notified federal authorities that Oduwole seemed overly anxious to get weapons he had ordered online, according to an affidavit filed in court by a police detective.

After Oduwole's arrest, Madison County prosecutors filed a request in the fraud case to have him examined by a psychologist, arguing "there is a bona fide doubt" about his mental fitness. But Pat Dennis, an Oduwole attorney, told reporters Friday "there's nothing unstable about this young man."

On Friday, Hackett deferred a ruling on whether he would lower Oduwole's $100,000 bond on the fraud and theft counts.