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196 F.3d 1137 (10th Cir. 1999)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
MATTHEW JOSEPH KAMMERSELL, Defendant - Appellant.

No. 98-4177

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT

November 15, 1999

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF UTAH. D.C. No. 97-CR-084-CRichard McKelvie (Paul M. Warner, United States Attorney and Richard Lambert, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), Salt Lake City, Utah, for Plaintiff - Appellee.

Deirdre A. Gorman, Ogden, Utah, for Defendant - Appellant.

Before KELLY, HOLLOWAY, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

KELLY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Matthew Joseph Kammersell entered a conditional guilty plea to a charge of transmitting a threatening communication in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ยง 875(c). Upon recommendation of the magistrate judge, the district court rejected Mr. Kammersell's contention that federal jurisdiction did not exist because both he and the recipient of the threat were located in the same state when the transmission occurred. He was sentenced to four months imprisonment, and twenty-four months supervised release. Our jurisdiction arises under 28 U.S.C. ยง 1291 and we affirm.

Background

The facts in this case are undisputed. On January 16, 1997, Mr. Kammersell, then nineteen years old, logged on to the Internet service provider (ISP) America On Line ("AOL") from his home computer in Riverdale, Utah. Mr. Kammersell's girlfriend was employed at AOL's service center in Ogden, Utah. He sent a bomb threat to her computer terminal via "instant message," hoping that the threat would enable her to leave work early so they could go on a date.

When he sent the bomb threat, it was automatically transmitted through interstate telephone lines from his computer in Utah to the AOL server in Virginia and then back to Utah to his girlfriend's terminal at the Ogden service center. Every message sent via AOL automatically goes from the state of origin to AOL's main server in Virginia before going on to its final destination. This pattern of transmission is the same whether the communication is an electronic mail (e-mail) message or an instant message.

Mr. Kammersell does not contest that the threat traveled out of Utah to Virginia before returning to Utah. Nor does he contest that his message constituted a sufficient "threat" to trigger ยง 875(c). His only claim is that the jurisdictional element of ยง 875(c) cannot be met if based solely on the route of the transmission, where the sender and recipient are both in the same state.

Discussion

The district court's refusal to dismiss the case on jurisdictional grounds was based upon its interpretation of ยง 875(c), therefore, its conclusion is reviewed de novo. See United States v. Brown, 164 F.3d 518, 521 (10th Cir. 1998).

Section 875(c), provides:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication containing any threat to kidnap any person or any threat to injure the person of another, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.

This provision was enacted in 1934, and its last significant amendment was in 1939. At that time, the telegraph was still the primary mode of interstate communication.