Obama threat suspect claims insanity

Published 9:21 pm Wednesday, September 3, 2014

A Suffolk man on Wednesday pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to charges of threatening the lives of President Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton earlier this year.

David Gil Wilkinson, 43 at the time of his indictment in March, is a decorated veteran who served nearly 26 years in the U.S. Navy. He was indicted after allegedly threatening Obama’s and Clinton’s lives in statements to two different law enforcement agencies.

His home address is listed as a home in North Suffolk, but a neighbor said earlier this year that Wilkinson rents it out and had moved out of the city.

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U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson accepted the plea of not guilty by reason of insanity to both counts. He ordered Wilkinson to be subject to further examination, with a follow-up hearing no later than 40 days from now.

Jackson also denied Wilkinson’s request for release into the custody of his former psychiatrist, according to a court document.

According to an affidavit filed March 27 in federal court, Wilkinson was stopped by sheriff’s deputies in Southampton County on March 21 after he called 911 and stated that “he was an FBI agent and had run out of fuel on Highway 58.”

The Southampton County Sheriff’s Office “had numerous reports that day of a vehicle matching Wilkinson’s description being driven at speeds over 100 mph,” according to the affidavit.

Deputies arriving on the scene questioned Wilkinson, who stated, according to court documents, that “he worked for important people, had just left SEAL Team 6 and was going to personally throw out Obama and execute him and Hillary.”

Searching Wilkinson’s vehicle, deputies found $12,100 in cash, along with marijuana, drug paraphernalia, prescription medication and an empty pistol box. Further investigation revealed that the vehicle had been involved earlier in a hit-and-run accident in Suffolk.

When officers took Wilkinson into custody, he “brought the handcuffs from his back to his front and further broke the handle on the door to his holding room in order to prevent deputies from keeping him inside while awaiting transport to the hospital for an evaluation.”

The deputies had been wearing body cameras that recorded audio and video. The affidavit quotes him as saying he would “personally execute (Obama) and Hillary.” He made reference to Obama being responsible for the deaths of Navy SEALs.

According to the affidavit, Wilkinson told federal investigators on March 23 that he suffered from a traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression as a result of his military service.

After a 72-hour emergency committal order expired, Wilkinson was released from the Pavilion Behavioral Health Center in Williamsburg on March 24.

According to the affidavit, U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Brian E. Stallings received a call on March 25 from a Henrico County Police officer, who had stopped Wilkinson that afternoon on I-295 near the Staples Mill Road exit after observing him traveling at 100 mph on the highway.

Wilkinson had called Henrico communications at about 4:40 p.m. that day and “continued to update Henrico communications, along with making statements such as President Obama being out and that people needed to die, and he was part of a group that would take back America,” the court documents allege.