This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2011, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A Salt Lake City man indicted in federal court for allegedly using his Facebook page to threaten to kill members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and education officials must undergo a mental evaluation, a federal judge has ordered.
U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups made the determination that 36-year-old Mark Eric Bayne must be evaluated by a professional after hearing arguments from attorneys on Tuesday who suggested the man has a mental condition that doesn't allow him to meaningfully participate in his defense. Waddoups will consider Bayne's competency after the evaluation.
Bayne was indicted in December on three counts of felony threats in interstate commerce.
Bayne allegedly used his Facebook page to post a status update on Nov. 26 that referred to Mormons as the "worst form of humanity" and made threats to "take at least thirty of their women and children [at the cost of each man] EVER DAY," court documents state.
The message continues on to label "primary targets," whose identities have been redacted from the court documents.
Bayne has also sent emails to federal, state and private institutions — including colleges — which "expressed deep-seated anger and used vulgar epithets to demean the recipients and the particular institutions they represent," according to court documents.
In the emails, he vowed to carry out violence against those he believed had "wronged him," the court documents state.
Bayne accessed Facebook and his email at Salt Lake Community College, according to court documents. He posted a video showing footage of a man who shot a firearm during a public school board meeting in Florida.
Bayne also sent emails to the U.S. Department of Education, expressing frustration about graduate school and saying he might carry out a mass shooting similar to Trolley Square — the February 2007 rampage at a Salt Lake City shopping mall that left five people dead and four wounded.
"The hope is that they [school officials] will frustrate me into dropping out of grad school and eventually getting a weapon; anticipating that I would become so embittered I would seek to exact my revenge by shooting innocent random people or using my education to create an explosive device," Bayne wrote.
Tim Vitale, a spokesman for USU, confirmed Bayne was a student in Logan who graduated in May 2010 with an undergraduate degree.
The threats-in-interstate-commerce charge applies because Bayne alledgedly used the Internet and email to make threats, which could interfere with interstate and foreign commerce, according to court documents.
Bayne is being held in the Davis County Jail under the custody of U.S. marshals.