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Man jailed for making bomb threats to Florida schools posing as ex's new boyfriend

PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — A Georgia man involved in a complicated scheme to make bomb threats to schools in Palm Beach while pretending to be his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend will spend more than three years in prison, officials said.

Preston Alexander McWaters, 26, of Athens, Georgia, was sentenced Tuesday to 42 months in federal prison in connection with the case.

According to a criminal complaint filed in March, McWaters was stalking and harassing his ex-girlfriend in Georgia before she moved to Palm Beach.

McWaters purchased prepaid cellphones and used them to open fictitious social media accounts in the name of the woman’s new boyfriend, court documents said.

He started making bomb threats on Twitter in December, beginning with John I. Leonard High School and Palm Beach International Airport.

“The bombs at John I. Leonard High School are going to blow soon,” a Dec. 11 Twitter post said. “Merry Christmas, you (expletive) kids.”

A second tweet threatened PBIA, saying: “I hope Palm Beach International Airport enjoys the bombs I left for them.”

The airport also received an email from a fictitious person on Dec. 30, warning that bombs would go off at 9:30 p.m. the next day, investigators said.

FBI agents traced the posts back to cellphones registered in the name of McWaters' ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend.

The boyfriend told investigators that he did not purchase the phone or make the threats.

As the investigation continued, agents tracked the continuing bomb threats back step by step, despite McWaters' efforts to mask his actions, which included posting through an encrypted virtual computer network, court documents said.

The threats, which also included several sent to Jupiter High School and the business where the man whom he was impersonating worked, continued until March, when FBI agents traced them back to McWaters, investigators said.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce and two counts of making fake bomb threats.