SAN ANTONIO – A federal jury on Monday found a 40-year-old San Antonio man guilty of executing a COVID-19-related hoax.
Jurors convicted Christopher Charles Perez, aka “Christopher Robbins,” on two counts of 18 U.S.C. § 1038, which criminalizes false information and hoaxes related to biological weapons, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.
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Evidence presented during the trial revealed that Perez posted two threatening messages on Facebook. He claimed to have paid someone infected with COVID-19 to lick items at grocery stores in the San Antonio area because he was trying to scare people away from visiting the stores.
On April 5, 2020, a screenshot of the initial posting was sent by an online tip to the Southwest Texas Fusion Center, which then contacted the FBI office in San Antonio for further investigation, officials said.
The threats were deemed to be false, according to investigators and Perez, officials said.
Perez faces up to 10 years in federal prison. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 20.
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