HARTFORD — A US District Court judge on Thursday, February 12, sentenced a Venezuelan man to 12 months and one day of imprisonment, to be followed by three years of probation, for making threatening phone calls to residents of Newtown shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting tragedy in December 2012.

Judge Michael P. Shea issued that sentence to Wilfrido A. Cardenas Hoffman, 31, of El Hatillo, Venezuela, according to a statement from Thomas Carson, spokesman for the US Attorney for Connecticut Deirdre M. Daly, and Patricia M. Ferrick, who is the special  agent in charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI.

Cardenas Hoffman will receive time-credit for the seven-plus months that he has already served.

In the federal system, any defendant who is sentenced to more than 12 months of imprisonment is eligible for up 15 percent of a sentence reduction for good behavior, Mr Carson said.

So, Cardenas Hoffman would have to serve about 10½ months, at a minimum. In effect, he potentially could be released from prison in about three months, Mr Carson said.

Judge Shea also noted that Cardenas Hoffman will spend some time, perhaps one month or two months, in immigration custody after his release from prison, Mr Carson added.

In light of the defendant’s psychiatric diagnoses and his proposed treatment plan in Venezuela, which was described in detail in a November 24 letter from the defendant’s examining physician at Yale School of Medicine, Cardenas Hoffman had requested that he be given a sentence of time already served, and the government prosecutors took no position on the matter.

But Judge Shea did not accept those recommendations, opting for a stricter sentence.

According to court documents and statements made in court, on December 16, 2012, two days after the shootings that took 26 lives at Sandy Hook School, Cardenas Hoffman used a program on a tablet computer to make numerous phone calls from his home in Venezuela to Newtown residences.

In one of the telephone calls, Cardenas Hoffman stated: “This is Adam Lanza. I’m gonna [expletive] kill you.  You’re dead.  You’re dead.  You hear me?  You’re dead.”

In another phone call, Cardenas Hoffman stated: “This is Adam Lanza. I’m gonna kill you. You’re dead. With my machine gun. You’re dead [expletive].”

The investigation revealed that Cardenas Hoffman made more than 90 calls to approximately 47 telephone numbers of Newtown residences.  Not all of the calls were successfully placed and answered.

Cardenas Hoffman was charged by criminal complaint on May 20, 2013.

That complaint remained sealed until he was arrested on June 21, 2014, in Miami, as he transitioned through Miami International Airport en route to Mexico from Venezuela.  He has been detained since his arrest and pleaded guilty to the offense on December 11.

“Threatening Newtown residents just two days after their tragedy was inexplicably cruel,” Ms Daly said in a statement.

“This defendant’s senseless crimes re-victimized a brave yet fragile community that was already suffering a profound loss. Together with the FBI, our office is committed to tracking down individuals who commit such hoax crimes wherever they are, and bringing them to justice,” she added.

“With today’s sentence, Mr Hoffmann has been held accountable for his despicable actions that only served to perpetuate the pain and suffering the families living in Newtown have endured,” Ms Ferrick said.

“I would like to thank the investigators and prosecutors for their commitment to bring Mr Hoffmann to justice,” she said.

The case was investigated by the FBI, with the assistance of the Newtown Police Department. Assistant US Attorneys Krishna Patel and Edward Chang were the prosecutors.