MANCHESTER, NH – File this one under “think before you drink and dial” – the case of a Manchester man accused of threatening Gov. Chris Sununu in a profanity-laced message left for him last year on his office voicemail.
Matthew Wilcox, 46, of Manchester, charged with two counts of harm or threats to certain government officials. That same morning, March 20, 2020, he is accused of calling the New Hampshire National Guard headquarters and threatening to fill the captain who answered the phone “with bullets.”
When investigators tracked down Wilcox and told him they wanted to talk to him about the phone calls, he said, “OK, I was really drunk,” according to court documents.
Allison Vachon, an investigator with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, asked him what he was upset about when he called the governor’s office.
“Did I call the governor?” Wilcox asked. “I don’t remember that.”
According to court documents, his profanity-laced message was: “You fucking send shit to my house. I’m going to fucking come find you and kill you, you piece of shit. FUCK YOU, you fucking rat bastard Nazi fuck. You’re gonna get fucking stabbed, fuck.”
He did remember calling the National Guard but was not sure about the conversation.
Vachon asked him what he was upset or concerned about when he called the Guard. He said he was concerned about the coronavirus and the possibility of being quarantined.
Investigators said Wilcox called the main office line of the New Hampshire National Guard about 15 minutes before he called the Governor’s office. The captain heard a male voice say, “You [NH National Guard] better not try to tell me to do something or I’ll fucking fill you with bullets.” He went on to say the National Guard is a bunch of sheep. The captain thanked him for his support of the military and hung up the phone.
Wilcox called back four more times with “additional derisive comments,” according to the affidavit of Allison Vachon, an investigator with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office. The captain let a fifth call go to voicemail, Vachon said.
Wilcox met with investigators at the Manchester Police Department. He told them he heard the National Guard was going to be deployed for quarantine or a shelter-in-place order. He said he had been reading a discussion about it on Facebook and was angry when he called. He said he drank a number of beers that night and was drunk at the time he made the call. Initially, he said he called the Guard once or twice and then passed out after getting voicemail.
Investigator Robert Freitas played the voicemail left on the Governor’s voicemail and, after hearing the recording, Wilcox was asked if it was his voice.
“I don’t think I should answer that one,” Wilcox said. Vachon asked if he was saying what he said to the governor because he thought he was going to deploy the guard.
“I’m not thinking anything. When it comes to that …Obviously that’s me. That person’s not thinking anyway,” Wilcox said, according to Vachon.
Wilcox said he did not know who he was calling, that it was “just words, and I didn’t mean it, whatever I said on the phone.”
He agreed that the Governor or anyone could be concerned about the language in the message.
A few minutes later, Vachon said Wilcox said he “probably told [us] too much” and that “I should probably talk to a lawyer.”
The questioning ended but Wilcox then engaged in small-talk about his tattoo profession with Freitas.
Wilcox was scheduled to plead guilty to the charges on Monday in Hillsborough County Superior Court Northern District. However, the case was continued to March 31 at 1:30 p.m.
