A Florida man was expected to plead guilty to a federal charge of threatening over the Internet to stage a Virginia Tech-style massacre, according to court documents filed Tuesday by prosecutors.
Calin Chi Wong, 20, was to plead guilty to a single Internet threat charge Wednesday. At a brief preliminary hearing Tuesday, Wong waived his right to have a grand jury decide whether he should face charges.
"Is that what you want to do?" U.S. Magistrate Judge Andrea Simonton said. "Yes," Wong replied.
His attorney, Joaquin Padilla, declined comment after the hearing.
Wong faces up to six months in prison, although prosecutors said they would recommend a lighter sentence and probation. Wong will be forced to forfeit a large collection of weapons and ammunition he possessed when he was arrested, according to court documents.
The plea hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Alan S. Gold.
Wong, of Homestead, was arrested in April by federal authorities after allegedly making the Virginia Tech-style threat in an Internet chat room in March. Wong has been held without bail at Miami's downtown federal prison since his arrest.
According to the FBI, Wong made the threats about a Virginia Tech-style attack on a firearms chat room called AR15.com on March 25. He referred in one chat to Seung-Hui Cho, a mentally disturbed Tech student who killed 32 people and wounded others last year before killing himself.
"As we all know around a year ago this guy named Cho shot up virginia tech because no one believed him," Wong said in the chat, according to an FBI transcript. "I'm soon to the point to reenact the whole thing."
He later added: "I feel there is no choice out of this other than what cho did."
Among weapons Wong must forfeit include four AK-47 assault rifles, seven handguns, a sniper rifle with scope and 132 ammunition magazines. There was no evidence released by the FBI that Wong ever went beyond the chat room comments to plan any attacks.