By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A suburban Chicago mother of seven faces federal cyberstalking charges for allegedly urging Facebook followers to kill a gang member-turned-FBI mole for helping put behind bars an associate of hers accused of trying to sell semiautomatic rifles stolen from a freight train.
Iesha Stenciel, 38, also faces a gun charge after she was found carrying a bag containing an AR 15-type assault rifles stolen from a Chicago train in September 2016, the Associated Press reports.
Brian Stafford was arrested in October 2016 for allegedly telling the informant that he was in possession of the stolen rifles. Following the arrest, Stenciel is accused of posting the Facebook threats.
“Snitches get stitches and found in ditches,” one posting allegedly said, followed by 11 handgun emojis.
Stenciel later claimed the postings were fantasies, not legitimate threats.
Facebook is “a cyber fantasy community where you can live out any fantasy with no real means or intent of carrying anything out,” she wrote to a federal judge in a letter in July.
The AP wrote:
Filings aren’t clear about whether Stafford or Stanciel, both of whom have previous criminal records, played a direct role in the 2016 theft. The guns had been loaded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, two days before the train stopped in Chicago. The thieves also made off with several TVs.
The filings describe Stanciel and Stafford as “associates” but don’t offer details. Stanciel, of Aurora, and Stafford, from the Chicago suburb of Bellwood, have both pleaded not guilty. Stafford faces gun possession charges.
The informant, working with the FBI, agreed to pay Stafford $4,000 for the three rifles, court filings said. The informant wore audio and video devices during the exchange of the money and guns at Stafford’s home on Oct. 23 last year, and Stafford was arrested later that day.
