OSU student sentenced to prison in bomb threat case
The former student who pled guilty to last year’s bomb threat on Ohio State’s campus was sentenced to six months in prison Thursday.
Jonathon Michael Birkemeyer, a 24-year-old former OSU student and former Marine, sent an email to the FBI headquarters on Nov. 16, 2010, claiming he had found a map of nine bombs placed in four different buildings on the OSU campus, according to court documents.
The threat resulted in more than 1,500 students being evacuated from the mentioned buildings and closed pedestrian traffic on 18th Avenue, while the FBI, OSU police and the Columbus Fire Department bomb squad searched for the bombs. The search continued until 5 p.m., at which time the buildings were reopened.
Birkemeyer, who studied criminology while attending OSU, withdrew from the university during the ongoing investigation in Winter Quarter of 2011. He pleaded guilty on June 20 to “one count of maliciously conveying false information concerning an attempt to destroy property by means of explosives,” according to the press release.
Kenneth Smith, an FBI special agent, said in June that Birkemeyer had an exam scheduled in McPherson Laboratory the morning of the threat. During the investigation, FBI access to Birkemeyer’s computer showed that he had downloaded the review sheet for the exam the day before.