RUSK COUNTY, Texas — An East Texas man was sentenced to five years for making over 70 threatening phone calls to the Rusk County Sheriff's Office, including saying he would “rain down hell-fire.”

Travis Andrew Halbert changed his plea from not guilty to guilty at the last minute, according to the Rusk County District Attorney's Office. After that, a jury sentenced him to five years in prison for terroristic threat.

Officials say he placed over 70 phone calls to the Rusk County Sheriff’s Office over a three-day period. In some of those calls, he specifically threatened the dispatchers and their families. In another call, he threatened to “rain down hell-fire” on the sheriff’s office by fire bombing the department.

The case was investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety/Texas R

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