Canal Winchester man sentenced to prison for making interstate threats to law enforcement, court officials & businesses, calling in bomb threats to local schools

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Canal Winchester man was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 60 months in prison for making interstate threats to local law enforcement, court officials, businesses and schools.

Yousif Mubarak, 27, was convicted following a jury trial in August 2023 of seven counts of making interstate threats.

"Threats are more than mere words, they have significant consequences, as illustrated by the sentence imposed today," said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker.

According to court documents and trial testimony, in September 2021, Mubarak made at least 87 threatening phone calls from the state of Washington, where he resided for a short time, to a Franklin County Municipal Court Judge who previously presided over his court case.

Mubarak told the Judge that he would find her, that he had private investigators following her and that she should watch for cars following her. Mubarak said, "I will find you even if that means I die," and threatened to kill the Judge himself. In many of the messages, Mubarak identified himself by name and left his callback number.

Beginning on Sept. 12, 2021, and continuing until the early morning hours of Sept. 13, 2021, Mubarak also placed numerous threatening calls to businesses and schools in the Canal Winchester and Pickerington areas.

He called to make threats to employees at the Brew Dog, Home Depot and Best Western businesses in Canal Winchester.

On Sept. 12, 2021, at about 10pm, officers and agents with the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office, Columbus Division of Police and FBI visited the last known address of Mubarak in Canal Winchester. Mubarak observed the officers in his Ring doorbell camera and taunted the officers throughout the interaction.

Twenty minutes later, Mubarak called a dispatcher in Fairfield County and told her, in part, "you can die" and "she would get two bullets in the head." The defendant called the Franklin County Sheriff's Office more than 100 times in a 12-hour span.

Around 7am on the morning of Sept. 13, 2021, Mubarak called in a bomb threat to Canal Winchester Middle School. He told a school employee: "I have placed several bombs in your building" and "I would get your women and children out now."

Approximately 20 minutes later, Mubarak called Pickerington North High School and said there were two suicide bombers inside the school.

Mubarak was charged federally and arrested on Sept. 22, 2021. A federal grand jury indicted him in November 2021 and that indictment was superseded in June 2022.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division; Fairfield County Sheriff Alex Lape; and Columbus Police Chief Elaine Bryant announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Edmund A. Sargus, Jr. Assistant United States Attorneys Jessica W. Knight and Jennifer M. Rausch are representing the United States in this case.

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