IL Man Who Threatened To Kill Democrats Wants Shorter Sentence

CHICAGO HEIGHTS, IL — A Chicago Heights man who pleaded guilty to leaving threatening voicemails for a member of Congress is asking for a reduced sentence after lawyers said Louis Capriotti had no intention of going to Washington, D.C., or hurting members of Congress.

Capriotti, 46, was arrested by federal authorities in January 2021. According to a complaint against the Chicago Heights man, Capriotti left a voicemail in late 2020 saying, "We will surround the [expletive] White House, and we will kill any [expletive] Democrat that steps on the [expletive] lawn."

In a sentencing memo filed Friday, Capriotti's lawyers said the man "had no intent, and no plan or ability, to follow through on his voicemails."

According to a release from federal officials, Capriotti didn't go to the Capitol in January 2021 or participate in the Jan. 6 riots. Lawyers are asking for an 18-month sentence followed by probation and mandatory anger management courses.

Usually, the charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce carries a sentence of up to 37 months. Capriotti has been held in the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest 14 months ago.

"This is no excuse for Mr. Capriotti's conduct, which he has acknowledged crossed the line," lawyers said in the memo. "Yet he did not do so in a vacuum, divorced from the political and news contexts around him; he did so with the news on his television."