Former soldier gets 18 months in prison for threatening Fort Hood rampage

A former soldier from Texas has been sentenced to 18 months in federal prison after being convicted of making threats to go on a shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

Prosecutors say a judge in Waco sentenced Thomas Anthony Chestnut Jr. on Dec. 8. In September, a jury found the 29-year-old Drippings Springs man guilty of threatening a uniformed service member and using interstate communications to threaten injury.

Trial evidence showed Chestnut called Fort Hood in February saying he was a former soldier wrongly accused of a crime. He said he’d shoot soldiers at the Army post if he didn’t receive back pay.

In 2009, 13 people were killed in a shooting at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.