Parkersburg man sentenced for Rural King threats
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PARKERSBURG -- A Parkersburg man who pleaded guilty to making threats at Rural King earlier this year was sentenced Thursday.
Michael Adam Roe, 35, recently pleaded guilty to making terroristic threats. He was sentenced by Wood County Circuit Court Judge Jason Wharton to one to three years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint written by Detective R.W. Black of the Parkersburg Police Department, on Jan. 26 Roe was wielding a machete-like weapon and passed a handwritten letter to an employee stating there were timed pipe bombs in areas located in Parkersburg and Vienna including near citizens' homes and inside/outside the store.
"The … letter also states that the timed pipe bombs will detonate if his written requests are not fulfilled," Black wrote.
The Parkersburg Police and Wood County Sheriff's Department responded to the scene as the store was evacuated.
Officers made contact with Roe, who was wielding the hatchet, and he would not comply with officers' commands to drop it. Non-lethal use-of-force actions were taken to take Roe into custody.
The employee told Black she was in fear for her safety after she read the letter and seeing him wielding the machete-like weapon, Black wrote.
"During a Mirandized interview with (Roe), he admitted to planning and carrying out a bomb threat at the store with the intention to instill fear in employees and customers so his story could be heard," he wrote.
The defense withdrew motions for alternative sentencing and home confinement because Roe did not have a place he could reside at to facilitate such a sentence.
Roe did not make any statement before sentencing and none of the victims appeared to speak on the subject of sentencing. Prosecutors said they reached out to Rural King and the employees affected to let them know about Thursday's hearing and have an opportunity to speak or provide written statements.
Prosecutors also did not object to withdrawing the motion for alternative sentencing.
Probation or alternative sentencing would not have been granted due to the seriousness of the charges, Wharton said.
"The public good does require him to be imprisoned," Wharton said.
Roe was credited with 197 day for time already served and ordered to pay $277 in court costs upon his release as well as $500 for the services of the public defender's office.
Brett Dunlap can be reached at bdunlap@newsandsentinel.com