Psychological exam sought for NC man accused of threatening to kill President Biden
The lawyer for a Gastonia man accused of threatening to kill President Joe Biden wants a judge to order a psychological exam for his 27-year-old client.
David Kyle Reeves was indicted by a federal grand jury earlier this month on four charges related to a rash of angry and erratic phone calls he is accused of making to the White House and Secret Service, The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
The most serious charge, making a threat against the president of the United States, carries up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Reeves also is charged with two counts of interstate communications with intent to injure, which have a maximum combined punishment of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine; and with influencing a federal official by threat, which comes with up to 10-year prison sentence and a $250,000 fine.
Reeves remained in custody at the Mecklenburg County Jail on Saturday, where he has been held since his Feb. 5 arrest.
On Friday, Reeves’ lawyer, Kevin Tate, filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Charlotte for the exam to determine if Reeves is competent to stand trial. Tate is senior litigator with the Federal Public Defenders Office for the Western District of North Carolina.
In his motion, Tate wrote that when he first met Reeves, the lawyer “immediately sensed a mental disconnect and some form of psychosis to be exhibited by Mr. Reeves.”
Reeves couldn’t understand the charges when Tate tried to explain them to him, according to the motion.
Reeves also didn’t know where he was, and he couldn’t “communicate logically, including, unintelligible words,” Tate wrote in the motion.
During Reeves’ initial court appearance on Feb. 11, Tate told the judge that his client “may be taking” psychotropic medication and hoped he could continue to have access to the drugs while in the Mecklenburg jail.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte does not oppose the motion, according to the court document.
‘I’m going to come kill the president’
According to court records, Reeves was arrested after phone calls were made to the White House switchboard between Jan. 28 and Feb. 1 in which the caller threatened to kill the president and other federal officials.
Reeves repeated the threats in phone conversations with the Secret Service in which he taunted agents to try and stop him, documents show.
“I’m going to come kill the president, I’m going to kill the Secret Service because I own this whole planet,” Reeves said in a call with a Secret Service special agent, according to an affidavit filed in the case.
In another of the calls, according to the Secret Service affidavit, Reeves appeared to threaten to kill members of Congress. In another, he told one of the agents “to come pick him up, and take him to the White House so he can punch the President in the face, sit in his chair, and stay there until he dies.”
Court documents and an Observer investigation into Reeves’ background revealed a history of criminal violence. His previous charges include threatening the life of a public employee, assault on a police officer while resisting arrest, terroristic threats and acts, and violation of a family violence order, among other arrests.
Observer staff writer Austin Weinstein contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 6:30 AM with the headline "Psychological exam sought for NC man accused of threatening to kill President Biden."