Montana Man Arrested Over Social Media Threat, Faces Felony Charge

Internet trolls, here's your warning: watch you say because you never know when your comments could come back to bite you in the butt... or land you in prison.

One Missoula man found this out the old fashioned hard way.

Missoula Man Faces Felony Charges for Social Media Post

I think most of us would agree that trolling on the internet is common practice. We see people all the time writing ridiculous things in comment sections or using extreme hyperbole to get their arguments across.

In most cases, those comments are harmless and the person posting said absurdity has to live with the wonder of how many of us are cringing in silence.

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That's one thing, right? It's an entirely other thing to throw out hate speech and threats of physical harm!

Matthew Shelley, a 37-year-old man out of Missoula, did just that with a post on X (formerly Twitter) that said: "You work for [explicit] who murdered my family family. I will kill you."

Shelley was indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston with "one count of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce" on Thursday, July 23rd and then arrested at home a week later on Thursday, July 30th according to the United States Attorney's Office - District of Massachusetts.

Punishment for Death Threat on Social Media

Now, here's the thing - Shelley had to show up for a detention hearing in the District of Montana today and then he has to appear back in Boston "at a later date."

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He'll be facing up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine up to $250,000.

Watch you say online and well, just be a decent person. In this instance, it could've kept someone out of jail and avoided all of this.