Social Media Chatter Of RivCo Mass Shooting Ends With Prison Sentence

NORCO, CA — A convicted felon with access to multiple guns who fantasized openly about perpetrating a shooting at Norco College was sentenced Friday to four years in state prison.

Jacob Ryan McBain, 31, of Norco was convicted in April of three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm and one count each of being a felon in possession of ammunition and possession of an assault weapon.

A Riverside jury acquitted McBain of attempted murder, conspiracy to commit a felony and solicitation of murder.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher imposed the sentence required by law.

Just before trial proceedings began, McBain's co-defendant, 30-year-old Tarence Michael Thomas of Oregon City, Oregon, pleaded guilty to two counts of making criminal threats. In exchange for his admissions, the District Attorney's Office dropped a conspiracy count.

Thomas was sentenced on April 18 to three years, eight months behind bars.

The men were arrested in 2018 following a joint investigation by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department and the Riverside Community College District Police Department.

A prosecution trial brief said that the men chatted via Facebook messenger regarding what it might be like to shoot people at the Norco campus, with most of the talking done by McBain, who said "he wanted to become a professional mass shooter."

Thomas replied, "Definitely sounds entertaining," according to the brief.

The prosecution said both men were from the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area, but McBain had become homeless and moved to Norco to stay with a male friend, whose identity was not disclosed, living in a house in the 5000 block of Trail Street. The man owned all of the firearms to which McBain had access.

A sheriff's investigation was initiated in February 2018 after McBain sent messages to a Santa Cruz woman, whose identity also was not released, stating he wanted to kill "numerous people" and then wanted to be "killed by the police," court papers stated.

The defendant was evidently inspired by the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, that month, according to prosecutors.

The woman contacted sheriff's investigators and supplied them with images of her FB messenger conversations with McBain, according to the brief.

The alleged homicidal statements were sufficient to procure a search warrant and serve it at the Norco home of the defendant's friend on Feb. 19, 2018.

The search uncovered a loaded AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, a loaded 9mm pistol and a loaded 40-caliber semiautomatic handgun. There were also numerous boxes of ammo concealed in different places within the house, according to investigators.

Although the guns were the possessions of the property owner, McBain had boasted in his chat messages that he could use them, prosecutors said.

Further investigation of the defendant's social media activity led detectives to Thomas, with whom McBain had been communicating regularly. He was arrested in Oregon and extradited to California three weeks later.

Court records show McBain had prior convictions in another jurisdiction, but the offenses weren't listed.

Thomas had no documented prior felony convictions.