S. Burlington threat suspect accused of breaking rules of release

Prosecutors say a South Burlington teenager accused of sending death threats impersonated a former friend online to deflect blame from himself and interfere with the investigation. 

Josiah Leach, 18, of South Burlington is accused of violating conditions that prohibited him from using the internet and contacting people who are victims or potential witnesses in the case. He has been ordered to appear in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Friday.

Prosecutors say Leach sent threats that caused South Burlington High School to go into lockdown on three days and cancel classes for a day in April. 

A judge will decide whether to once again detain the teenager. Leach was released on conditions on April 27 into the care of his mother. 

Federal prosecutors had filed a warrant for Leach's arrest on Wednesday, but Judge Geoffrey Crawford denied the motion one day later. 

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Leach was indicted on a charge related to sending an email April 20 with a "murder list" of targeted students and faculty. The charge carries up to five years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty.

Attempts on Thursday to reach Leach's lawyer Elizabeth Quinn for comment on the new allegations were unsuccessful.

A motion filed by prosecutors this week alleges that Leach was accessing the Internet the same day he was released from prison. Prosecutors say he was using the Facebook account of a former friend, Dazhawn "Dayday" Walton, to impersonate Walton and make it seem like Walton was the perpetrator of the school threats. The communications were uncovered through a search warrant. 

On April 27 — the day of Leach's release — Leach's mother received a message from Walton's Facebook account. The message stated that Leach was taking the blame for Walton. 

"I just thought it would be funny," the message states. "His laptop email has contacts from sbhs so I sent it to all his recents ... sorry. Hopefully he gets probation. He's a real friend and won't snitch cause that's what real friends do."

The account also sent a message to another friend of Leach's saying, "Jo took the blame for me bro." 

"Yes man I did send the emails it was a joke," the message from Walton's account states. "Just don't tell anyone I don't want to get arrested bro." 

Another Facebook page, "ThatSoLoco," posted the threat video that had been circulated before Leach's arrest on April 21. The page is controlled by Walton's account, but activity on the page was recorded from an IP address that matches Leach's home. On April 28, the video post was updated showing a screen shot of Walton's alleged confession. 

The post read "'DAYDAY WALTON' CONFESSION ON JOSIAH LEACH TAKING THE BLAME REVEALED!!"

Between April 21 and 27, there was no activity recorded on the "ThatSoLoco" page. This correlates with the time period that Leach was jailed, prosecutors say. 

"Based on this information and the correlation between Facebook data and Josiah Leach's South Burlington High School laptop activity, there is reason to believe that Josiah Leah, using the Facebook user ID dayday.walton, created and had control over the Facebook page ThatSoLoco," the motion states. 

Conversations between Walton's profile and Leach's mom and friend also happened around the same time the alleged confession was posted to the "ThatSoLoco" page. Cookie data showed the Facebook accounts were all accessed from the same device, according to the motion.

Walton later told authorities that he hadn't accessed the account from which the messages were being sent for at least three years. He said he had become locked out after having accessed the account through Leach's phone, and he had to create a new Facebook account, the motion states. 

Walton said that he and Leach had a "falling-out" about one month ago, and that Leach had "blocked" Walton on Facebook just before April 18. 

Multiple members of the South Burlington High School community also told South Burlington police that Leach had posted messages on Snapchat since his release.

Leach remains free pending his court appearance Friday at 10 a.m.

Contact Elizabeth Murray at 651-4835 or emurray@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LizMurrayBFP.