A rural Mountain Home man charged with making more than 40 threatening calls aimed primarily at a CNN news anchor entered a guilty plea to the charges against him Thursday
Forty-year-old Benjamin Craig Matthews entered his plea in Baxter County Circuit Court. His case had been inactive while waiting for the results of a psychological exam to be received.
Matthews was sentenced to two years of unsupervised probation under the provision of Act 346, the first offender law.
Because of delays of various sorts, it has taken almost three years to reach this stage. The arrest warrant was originally served on Matthews in early November 2018.
Since that time, Matthews’ attorney has indicated a defense based on mental disease and defect would be mounted on his client’s behalf, and has asked for continuances and mental examinations.
It can generally be assumed if a case proceeds that the defendant has been found fit.
The calls Matthews allegedly made were laced with racial slurs and references to the newsman’s dead body being cut up in small pieces or swinging from a tree, pipe bombs and other threats of physical injury or death.
The newsman was listed only as DL in the affidavit. The CNN staff directory lists only one on-air employee with those initials Don Lemon, a news anchor who is African-American.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Matthews made multiple calls a day to CNN’s Atlanta headquarters during a period beginning Oct. 31 through Nov. 2, 2018.
Baxter County Sheriff’s office investigators worked with the Atlanta Police Department to trace the calls to a cellphone registered to Matthews.
Investigators say audio recordings indicated the same person made all of the calls. An individual familiar with Matthews listened to the recordings and positively identified him as the one making the calls.
Matthews is also alleged to have made other calls to MSNBC, New York Senator Chuck Schumer, Planned Parenthood, and California Congresswoman Maxine Waters.
Matthews was charged with nine felony counts of first-degree terroristic threatening and several misdemeanor counts.
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