Shawn Christy Calls Himself to the Stand

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    SCRANTON, PA (WNEP) — Shawn Christy has rested his defense and his fate is now in the hands of the jury.

The man from McAdoo is accused of threatening to kill the president and then committing a string of federal crimes while on the run from authorities for three months.

The final day of testimony saw tense exchanges and harsh words from Christy.

While debating with the judge and the prosecution about whether his evidence was admissible in court, Christy said, “Start charging cops and stop playing games in this courtroom. You’re wasting my time and starting to annoy me greatly.”

He later called one of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys a “f***ing punk.” At one point the judge told the jury to leave the courtroom so he could tell Christy to “think long and hard about the impact you’re having on the jury’s opinion of you.”

For his final witness, Shawn Christy called himself to the stand.

Most of the evidence he presented to the jury and the testimony he gave did not have to do with the federal crimes he is charged with in this case. Instead, he focused on his personal gripes with law enforcement and the government.

Christy is charged with threatening to kill President Trump and Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli. He’s also charged with several federal crimes he allegedly committed while on the run last year, crimes including illegally having a gun.

Before the jury was even called in, the judge ruled most of the evidence Christy planned as irrelevant and inadmissible in court.

The decision led Christy to tell the judge, “You are really pushing my buttons today and I don’t appreciate it.”

He then called the court, a “joke” and a “kangaroo court with a bunch of punk*ss federal marshals who think they’re tough.”

During his argument with the judge, Christy kept referring to the 2017 assault case in which he was accused of attacking the then-mayor of McAdoo Stephen Holly. He claims video evidence of the fight between the two was altered by a McAdoo police officer. He called that Schuykill County case the backbone of this federal case.

Christy missed his first court date for that case in May of last year. That’s when a warrant went out for his arrest and he eventually became a fugitive.

Christy says he was told by his former public defender not to show up to that court date.

The judge and prosecution continuously insisted that the McAdoo assault case was irrelevant.

Once Christy took the stand, he told the jury that he did not receive all of his mail while he was in prison waiting for this trial, mail that he needed to be able to represent himself in court.

He showed the jury a picture from when he was captured and arrested in Ohio last September after a three-month manhunt. He says the sneakers he was wearing and the wallet he was carrying that day were not returned to him.

Christy also admitted to breaking into the home of his uncle in Luzerne County and the home in Kentucky of Sarah Palin’s former son-in-law, but only to note that it struck him as odd that guns were lying around both of those homes.

When the prosecution cross-examined Christy, he denied stealing guns from his uncle.

He also denied posting the threat to kill the president, claiming his Facebook page was hacked.

The prosecution pointed to several Facebook posts made on what appears to be Shawn Christy’s Facebook page that referenced specific people and events Christy had mentioned in his testimony.

Christy said all of it was public information so anyone could have posted it.

When the government kept pressing, Christy eventually invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer any more questions. His direct testimony was then stricken from the record, and the jury was told to disregard it completely.

During closing arguments, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis Sempa stated “I’m not going to spend any more time on Mr. Christy’s and his parent’s beliefs about corruption in Schuylkill County. There’s no credible evidence for that.” And that even if there were, that does not excuse Christy’s unlawful conduct in this case. He went through each of Christy’s charges one by one and reviewed the evidence that he says proves Christy committed each crime.

Sempa pleaded with the jury to hold Christy accountable for “shredding the rule of law.”

During his closing argument, Christy attempted to discredit many of the prosecution’s witnesses and their testimonies.

Addressing the jury, he said, “You get to decide whether you’ve seen all the evidence or whether it was destroyed or hidden. That’s up to you.”

The jury is scheduled to begin deliberating Tuesday morning at 9 a.m. and they could have a verdict by the afternoon.

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