SCRANTON — On the run from state and federal charges, Shawn Christy vowed to wage war against anyone who attempted to capture him during a three-month crime spree across six states, a federal prosecutor said in an opening statement Tuesday.
The 28-year-old McAdoo man stole multiple vehicles and broke into several homes and businesses in an “odyssey” that began May 30, 2018, after he failed to show for trial on assault charges in Schuylkill County, Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis Sempa said.
“The defendant, the evidence will show, was a one-man crime wave,” Sempa said in a 30-minute opening statement at Christy’s trial in federal court. “He said he would use lethal force against any law enforcement that sought to detain him.”
Christy was charged in July 2018 with making threats against President Donald Trump and three counts of transmitting threats against Northampton County District Attorney John Morganelli and other law enforcement officials. In June 2018 Facebook posts, prosecutors say Christy said he would “put a bullet” in the heads of Trump and Morganelli and threatened “lethal force” against other officers.
Christy was later charged with several offenses related to the manhunt, including two counts each of transporting stolen vehicles and firearms across state lines and one count of being a fugitive in possession of a firearm.
Authorities say Christy first fled in a stolen vehicle to New York near the border with Canada. He stole additional vehicles as he traveled through West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Ohio, where he was captured on Sept. 21, 2018.
In a five-minute opening statement, Christy, who is representing himself, said he intends to “question possible illegal acts” committed by law enforcement. He said he does not know if he will call any witnesses, but will show the government destroyed or lost evidence and plans to challenge the credibility of government witnesses.
In a prior interview, Christy’s parents, Karen and Craig Christy, said their son is not a threat. They maintain his Facebook posts were merely protests of the unjust treatment he received relating to charges filed against him for assaulting the former mayor of McAdoo in March 2017. A Schuylkill County jury found Christy guilty of simple assault in that case last month.
Sempa said the federal case against Christy will largely rely on video surveillance footage that shows him stealing vehicles and notes he left at some of the homes and businesses he broke into, apologizing to the victims. One of those notes also threatened law enforcement, telling officers to “back down” from the search for him.
“If it’s war you want, it’s war I will give you,” Christy wrote, according to Sempa.
Prosecutors also have recordings of phone conversations Christy had with two people — whom Sempa described as his “admirers" — who visited him at the Ohio prison where he was held following his capture.
“He’s bragging about the crimes he committed,” Sempa said.
The trial before U.S. District Judge Robert D. Mariani is expected to last until at least Friday.
Christy also is awaiting trial on charges in Luzerne County Court for the theft of guns from his uncle’s home and in Carbon County Court on three cases involving thefts and a break-in at a private residence.
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