Prosecutors accuse Las Vegas man of threatening California model
A Las Vegas man who is accused of sending thousands of threatening text messages to a model in California was indicted Wednesday after authorities found a stockpile of weapons inside his home.
Timothy Sahrang La, 28, faces one count of violating an extended protective order, two counts of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm, and one count of possessing a component of an explosive or incendiary device with the intent to manufacture an explosive or incendiary device.
La was on probation out of Los Angeles County for a 2015 conviction on felony charges of stalking and making terrorist threats when he was stopped by Las Vegas police officers in late May and found with marijuana, according to an arrest report.
Prosecutors said La had sent more than 30,000 text messages to a female model in California, though it was unclear how he received her phone number.
In one of the text messages, La stated, “I’m literally taking a gun out to kill you,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Shanon Clowers told Chief District Judge Linda Bell at a hearing Wednesday in Las Vegas.
The prosecutor said most of the text messages “were very threatening.”
When probation officers searched La’s southwest valley home, they found several cardboard firearm targets, a box of handgun ammunition and a 9 mm handgun in the kitchen.
Police later found a screw inside a 1-foot metal pipe, similar to a pipe bomb; “several edged weapons, including a throwing star;” and shotgun shells.
When officers asked for the shotgun, La stated that he intended to build a homemade “pipe shotgun,” according to the report.
La told police he had “no ill intentions” regarding the pipe devices, the report states.
“He didn’t know how to build bombs, stating instead that the pipe devices were a ‘hobby thing,’ ” according to the report.
Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter.
