Dentist threatens to kill public figures over politics and gets prison in Florida, feds say
A dentist told the FBI he didn’t plan to follow through on violent threats he sent to a variety of public figures, including celebrities and an election official, who he disagreed with on politics, federal prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Richard Glenn Kantwill, of Tampa, Florida, said he “was a ‘keyboard warrior’ who was on a ‘verbal tirade’” when he was interviewed by FBI agents in October 2019, according to court documents.
Kantwill sent more than 100 threats over Facebook, Instagram, in emails and in text messages from September 2019 to July 2020, according to the Justice Department. He also sent at least seven more threats from April 2022 to April 2024, prosecutors said.
He threatened to “rape and murder” an election official, a religious figure, members of the media, political candidates and more, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memorandum.
“The FBI’s contact with (Kantwill) did not deter his threatening activity,” the sentencing memorandum says.
A federal judge sentenced Kantwill, 61, to two years in prison March 4 on four counts of interstate transmission of a threat, the Justice Department said in a March 5 news release.
Kantwill pleaded guilty Nov. 25 to sending threats to three people in 2019 and 2020, and to an election official in 2024, according to an earlier release issued by the Justice Department.
His defense attorney, Jorge Leon Chalela, didn’t immediately return McClatchy News’ request for comment March 5.
Before Kantwill was first interviewed by the FBI, one of his victims spent nearly $4,500 on surveillance cameras and installed them out of fear after receiving a death threat, according to prosecutors, McClatchy News previously reported.
In the text message, Kantwill called the person a “fake Reverend” and wrote “We are going to kill you. Torture first, then death,” according to court documents.
“You will deny Christ, just like Judas because you are a coward. Either way…prepare to die…”
When the FBI tried to interview Kantwill again in July 2021, he denied “doing anything illegal,” according to prosecutors.
At the time, he texted two middle finger emojis to an FBI agent, writing “(expletive) YOU,” court documents show.
Chalela wrote in a sentencing memorandum, on Kantwill’s behalf, that he’s a U.S. Army veteran who suffers from severe PTSD, anxiety, nightmares, depression and alcoholism in connection with his military service.
“The abhorrent messages that he sent are not representative of the individual who sent them,” Chalela wrote.
Kantwill was sentenced to two years in prison with a credit for 257 days of time served, court records show. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, according to court documents.
“The defendant’s repeated choice to threaten violence, to include threats of murder and rape, against persons in the public eye who he disagreed with, demonstrates a lack of self-control and respect,” prosecutors wrote in the government’s sentencing memorandum.
Kantwill’s prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, records show.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 2:00 PM with the headline "Dentist threatens to kill public figures over politics and gets prison in Florida, feds say."
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