Federal prosecutors said Zachary Charles Newell posted racist threats on YouTube, was quickly identified after a Google alert to the FBI and later pleaded guilty before sentencing in Raleigh.
RALEIGH, N.C. — A federal judge has sentenced a Newport man to two years in prison after prosecutors said he used YouTube comments to threaten a mass shooting at a Black preschool, closing a case that moved from a tech-company alert to arrest in a matter of days.
Zachary Charles Newell, 26, pleaded guilty to communicating online threats after investigators said he posted multiple racist messages in late August 2025. Federal prosecutors said one of those comments threatened a preschool and Black children directly, prompting an emergency response from the FBI and the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office. The sentence matters because the case turned an online outburst into a federal prosecution centered on school safety, hate-filled threats and how quickly law enforcement can act when a platform flags violent language aimed at children.
The public timeline begins on Aug. 31, 2025, when Google notified the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center about threatening comments posted by a YouTube user called “CommentatorsHateMe.” Federal authorities said investigators traced the account to Newell. Court filings described posts made Aug. 26 and Aug. 27 on public YouTube channels discussing a wrestling match involving Raja Jackson. In one post, prosecutors said, Newell threatened to “shoot up” a Black preschool. By Sept. 1, federal agents working with local deputies had arrested him in Carteret County. The speed of that response became one of the main facts officials emphasized afterward. U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle said the threats had “no place in our society,” framing the case as both a criminal prosecution and a warning that anonymous-looking online threats can quickly become traceable cases.
Local authorities filled in what happened on the ground in Newport. The Carteret County Sheriff’s Office said deputies received notice from the FBI, went to Newell’s home and took him into custody after an initial investigation. Deputies then obtained a search warrant and searched the residence. At first, the sheriff’s office charged him under state law with communicating a threat of mass violence on educational property. Local television reported that he posted a $30,000 bond before being moved into federal custody by deputies and the FBI. The sheriff’s office also said Newell did not identify a specific preschool or educational property in the threat, and officials stressed there was no active threat to any Carteret County school at that point. That detail mattered publicly because it separated a deeply alarming online statement from any announced plot against a named campus, even as investigators treated the language as serious and urgent.
As the case moved into federal court, prosecutors described a broader pattern behind the single preschool threat. The U.S. attorney’s office said Newell had become obsessed with extremist content online and posted numerous hostile comments aimed at racial, ethnic and religious minorities. Public summaries of the case say the threatening preschool remark was the most prominent message in the prosecution, but not the only hateful statement investigators linked to him. Officials also said Newell admitted posting the threat after agents identified him. What remains less clear from the public record is how much additional material investigators recovered from his devices, whether prosecutors presented evidence of any specific preparation beyond the posts themselves, or whether defense lawyers offered a fuller explanation for his conduct at sentencing. The Justice Department’s public release after sentencing did not detail any mental health evaluation, plea agreement terms beyond the guilty plea, or a fuller account of mitigation arguments raised on his behalf.
The legal path was straightforward but still carried high stakes. When Newell was first charged in September 2025, federal officials said the complaint could carry up to five years in prison if he were convicted. The case later moved from complaint to criminal prosecution in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Prosecutors said Newell ultimately pleaded guilty, and U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III imposed the sentence last week in Raleigh. Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin C. Blondel handled the prosecution, while the FBI and the Carteret County Sheriff’s Office were credited with the investigation. Public reporting after sentencing did not describe whether the judge imposed additional supervised release conditions or spell out Newell’s projected federal prison designation. No appeal had been publicly announced in the initial reporting available Tuesday, leaving the sentence itself as the clearest current marker in the case.
The case also drew attention because of the way it touched two fears at once: school violence and race-based intimidation. Federal officials repeatedly highlighted that the threat was aimed at very young children and described that target as especially disturbing. FBI Special Agent in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said every child should be able to go to school without fear, a line that local and federal reports echoed when the arrest was announced. In Carteret County, the sheriff’s office tried to calm immediate public concern by saying there was “no active threat” to local schools, even while emphasizing the seriousness of the online post. That balance shaped much of the public response. Officials wanted to show urgency without suggesting an identified school remained in danger. The result was a case in which the strongest visible evidence was digital, the arrest was rapid, and the broader public lesson came less from courtroom drama than from how an internet post traveled from a comment thread to a federal sentence.
Newell stood sentenced as of Tuesday to two years in federal prison for communicating online threats. With sentencing complete, the next public milestone would most likely be any notice of appeal or later federal custody update, but no such filing had been publicly described in the reporting released after the judge’s ruling.
Author note: Last updated March 31, 2026.