CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio — A federal jury has convicted a Canal Winchester man of making interstate threats to local law enforcement, court officials and businesses and calling in bomb threats to schools, according to U.S. Attorney Kenneth Parker.
Yousif Mubarak, 27, was convicted Thursday of seven counts of making interstate threats.
According to court documents, 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. Documents state that Mubarak said, “I will find you even if that means I die,” and that he threatened to kill the judge himself.
He also placed numerous threatening calls to businesses and schools in the Canal Winchester and Pickerington areas.
Records state that on 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.”
Around 20 minutes later, he called Pickerington North High School and said there were two suicide bombers inside the school.
Mubarak was federally charged and arrested on Sept. 22, 2021. A federal grand jury indicted him in November 2021 and that indictment was superseded in June 2022.
According to the release, making interstate threats is punishable by up to five years in prison.