California Man Gets 5 Years For Threatening Parkland Families

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL — A California man has been sentenced to five years in prison after he used Instagram to send threatening messages to relatives and friends of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre victims.

Brandon Fleury of Santa Ana was sentenced to 66 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Rudolfo A. Ruiz II following his October conviction by a federal jury on charges of interstate transmission of a threat to kidnap and interstate cyberstalking.

The sentence was announced Monday by U.S. Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan in Miami and Special Agent in Charge George L. Piro of the FBI’s Miami Field Office.

Prosecutors said Fleury sent tagged Instagram messages to accounts used by relatives and friends of students who were killed in the mass shooting. The messages started three days before Christmas 2018 and continued through the second week of January 2019. The massacre took place on Valentine's Day 2018 in the affluent Florida suburb of Parkland.

"Many of the messages ... taunted the message recipients about the deaths of loved ones in the Parkland shooting," prosecutors said. "On Dec. 25, 2018, Fleury, sent a message stating, 'I’m your abductor I’m kidnapping you fool.' On January 9, 10, and 11, 2019, Fleury continued to harass, intimidate, and threaten the message recipients from multiple Instagram accounts. These included messages sent under the username 'the.douglas.shooter.'”

The case was investigated by the FBI’s South Florida Violent Crime Fugitive Task Force and Broward County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

"One post threatened to kidnap the message recipients, while others sought to harass the recipients by repeatedly taunting the relatives and friends of the (Marjory Stoneman Douglas) victims, cheering the deaths of their loved ones and, among other things, asking them to cry," court documents stated.

Investigators found thousands of saved images of Ted Bundy on Fleury's electronic tablets along with images of the targeted victims and saved screenshots of messages Fleury sent to his victims.

Fleury told FBI agents he was fascinated by the accused Parkland shooter and serial killer Ted Bundy. He used various profiles with variations on the name of the accused Parkland shooter, whose identify is being withheld by Patch based on requests from the families of the 17 students and faculty killed in the attack.

Court documents said Fleury used "a handful of Instagram accounts" on a computer in his home, where he lives with his father and brother, to "troll" the victims "and gain popularity."

The FBI said Fleury "admitted to targeting family members who were 'activists' who had a significant social media presence."

The victims complained to the Broward County Sheriff's Office in December of 2018, less than a year after the shootings.

"Fleury did not show remorse for posting the comments but explained he would not follow through on the threats he communicated," court documents said. "He claimed that his messages were not threats, but were 'more like taunts.'"

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jared M. Strauss and Ajay Alexander.