Donovan Hall, 35, of Mesa, Arizona, was sentenced Thursday to 49 months in prison for stalking Jews in New York City and sending over 1,000 violent threats, including threats to murder and rape, the US Department of Justice announced, as quoted by JNS.
According to the DOJ, Hall “targeted Jewish victims with a sustained campaign of intimidation, terror and harassment.”
Jay Clayton, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, stated: “The approximately 1,000 threats he sent to these New Yorkers were alarming and brazen. The prosecution of this case and the sentence imposed make clear that this office will aggressively bring to justice those who perpetrate senseless crimes of hate.”
Over a period of three months, Hall contacted “several” Jewish New Yorkers about 1,000 times, issuing antisemitic and violent threats to “torture, mutilate, rape and murder them and their families.” Beginning in August 2024, he made dozens of threatening phone calls to the Jewish owner of a Manhattan hotel, as well as to the owner’s family and hotel staff.
The threats escalated when Hall sent photographs of two firearms and a machete to the hotel owner, accompanied by explicit threats to use them against the victims. Law enforcement later recovered the weapons and ammunition from Hall’s residence. The firearms were unregistered, and one was loaded.
In addition to his prison sentence, Hall was ordered to serve three years of supervised release following his incarceration.