Chicago man sentenced for SIU bomb threat

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A Chicago man has been ordered to spend a year and four months in prison for threatening to bomb the university where his estranged girlfriend was a student.

Maurice Wiggins, 23, was sentenced Monday in East St. Louis, three months after pleading guilty to a felony charge of making a bomb threat involving the Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale.

Authorities contend Wiggins was upset about the breakup with his girlfriend last August when he made the threat via a message from his cellphone to the 20,000-student university’s crime-watch website. Wiggins said he planned to bomb three dormitories and a student center between last September and November.

He also called campus police five times, the last time leaving a message insisting he would rape and kill 30 female students. Authorities say he also threatened his ex-girlfriend’s life.

“My office will not sit idly as people make illegal threats in our community,” said Stephen Wigginton, southern Illinois’ U.S. attorney. “Threats of this nature, however bizarre, are a danger to all of us and must be dealt with.”

“This prosecution should serve as a warning that offenders cannot hide anonymously behind their cellphones and computers when they break the law, that we will catch them, and that we will seek appropriate punishment,” Wigginton added.

Wiggins also has been ordered to spend three years on post-prison supervised release.