Sentence Remains for NE Iowa Man Who Threatened School Kids

CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) — A judge has refused to change the five-year sentence given to a Charles City man who made threatening statements against schoolchildren.

Forty-nine-year-old Loren Saxon pleaded guilty last year to charges of intimidation and public intoxication. Officers reported in August that Saxon said he was a member of the al-Qaida terrorist organization and that he would shoot as many children as he could. He was not armed at the time.

Saxon's attorney, Nellie O'Mara, said in her motion for reconsideration of Saxon's sentence that he wasn't convicted of a forcible felony and has a job and support available if he were to be placed on probation.

Judge Peter Newell said Wednesday that "the sentence previously imposed was appropriate."