A single Facebook comment following a League of Legends gaming session, changed the course of a 18-year-old boy's life forever, resulting in him serving jail time but has now been released after a unidentified person paid his $500,000 bail.
Justin Carter, who is now 19, got into a Facebook argument on February 13 this year with other gamers . He was called "effing crazy" by another commenter, to which he responded by saying that he would be "shooting up a kindergarten." The comment was seen by a Canadian woman who alerted police, and ultimately resulted in a Comal County grand jury indicting him on a charge of third-degree felony terroristic threat.
In his defense, he says he followed the comment by posting "LOL" for "laughing out loud" to illustrate it was just a joke.
"What I said was terrible, mean and downright stupid.... I wasn't trying to scare anyone, I was trying to be witty and sarcastic. I failed and I was arrested," Justin Carter wrote in a letter to District Judge Jack Robison.
Carter's family could not afford to pay the high bond. But a pro bono lawyer who is also representing the Carter family, Don Flanery, tells MSNBC that an "anonymous good Samaritan" paid the $500,000 bail amount.
Flanary told Game Front that the bail was too much. "The normal bail for someone facing murder charges, facing life in prison, it's generally $100,000," Flanary said. "This is a third degree felony... Most of the time those bonds are around $10,000."
Carter faces a possible prison term of two to ten years, and up to $100,000 in fines, if convicted. The case has galvanized free speech advocates, likely a contributing factor to his release.
