A Columbus man has pleaded guilty to making a false bomb threat to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle in November.
Michael Anthony Sparks, 25, entered his plea to the felony in federal court in Greenville on Thursday. In exchange for the plea, prosecutors agreed to not pursue other charges.
Authorities say Sparks made the threat via a cellular telephone while he was an inmate at a Delta jail.
He faces up to a decade behind bars.
In November, the Columbus hospital received a midday phone call from a man who asked the operator if she wanted to die. “Excuse me?” the woman replied. The man then claimed there was a bomb in the hospital and that hospital personnel had approximately 15 minutes to evacuate, according to an affidavit signed by a FBI investigator.
The hospital was evacuated. A team of explosive detecting dogs and their handlers from Columbus Air Force Base were called in.
There was no bomb.
Meanwhile, the Columbus Police Department, working with AT&T, used cell tower information to locate the telephone that placed the call. It was located at the Leflore County Restitution Center in Greenwood and guards there recognized the voice on the recorded threat as belonging to Sparks, according to the affidavit.
Sparks admitted to law enforcement that the call was a “foolish prank,” authorities say.
Sparks had been at the restitution center since June. He was convicted in 2012 of non-residential burglary in Lowndes County, according to the Mississippi Department of Corrections. According to MDOC, restitution centers are where “minimal risk offenders” are required to work and pay full or partial payments to crime victims.
Residents at restitution centers are not allowed to have cell phones. Authorities ultimately determined that Sparks smuggled the cell phone in.
He remains in custody while awaiting sentencing.
A sentencing hearing has not yet been set, according to an online federal court database.
William Browning was managing editor for The Dispatch until June 2016.
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