A federal judge later this month will review the mental evaluation of a local ISIS sympathizer who threatened attacks in Vero Beach to determine if he is fit to stand trial.
U.S Magistrate Judge Shaniek Maynard on Wednesday set a hearing for Aug. 26 to analyze the psychological evaluation of Charlton La Chase, 29, who was arrested in late May at his Fort Pierce home, just hours after his release from a federal prison in Georgia where he served time for prior threats of mass murder and destruction. Maynard will rule if La Chase is competent to stand trial depending on the findings of the psychiatric evaluation and arguments from La Chase’s lawyer and federal prosecutors.
The recent arrest came after La Chase emailed his sister a threat promising to carry out an attack along I-95 in Vero Beach. He was charged with transmitting an interstate or foreign commerce communication containing a threat to injure another person — a crime punishable by up to five years in prison.
La Chase was initially arrested by the FBI last year and charged with several counts of transmitting threats through interstate or foreign commerce. He pled guilty in July 2018 to two counts and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years of supervised release in which he was required to undergo mental health treatment. He was also ordered to stay away from his sister, a Port St. Lucie resident.
Before his 2018 arrest, La Chase, who is deaf and also suffers from degenerative blindness, threatened to “behead” his sister and her two small children while also proclaiming his hope to “be the first deaf person to create American casualties in the name of ISIS,” according to court documents.
La Chase spoke briefly during the short court hearing at the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, where he appeared shackled and in jail garb.
“I don’t want to be transferred to Miami. I was abused there,” La Chase, said through a court interpreter. La Chase was incarcerated in a Miami jail during his first arrest. He’s currently being held in the St. Lucie County Jail.
La Chase’s attorney, Fletcher Peacock, on Wednesday requested La Chase be housed in the jail with several other deaf inmates who are not facing federal charges.
“It would decrease the isolation, which is pretty intense for him,” Peacock said.
The U.S. Marshals Service would make the final decision on the request, Maynard said.
La Chase, who the FBI says posted an ISIS recruitment video on his Facebook page in 2015, also texted his sister he planned to rent a truck and attack a “festive event,” adding he aspired to be like the Las Vegas shooter, who injured more than 500 people and killed 59.
He also texted his sister that he would go down in history like Pulse Nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, a Fort Pierce resident La Chase claimed to know, who killed 49 people in Orlando and pledged his allegiance to ISIS. He threatened to attack the CVS Distribution Center in Vero Beach – where he was once employed – and Pursuit Boats in Fort Pierce, where he was denied a job, his sister told Vero Beach 32963.
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