Marionville man sentenced to years behind bars for death threats

Hubert gets 30 months in prison, three years supervised release for threatening two U.S. congressmen
 
A Marionville man was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for threatening to kill two United States congressmen. Kenneth Rodney Hubert, 63, was sentenced for the crimes by United States District Judge Douglass Harpool at the United States Courthouse in Springfield on Tuesday, Nov. 16.
According to the information found in the plea agreement in the case, Hubert called the office of U.S. Representative Steve Cohen on May 6, 2019 and said that he “’had a noose with the Congressman’s name on it’ and ‘planned to put a noose around (Cohen’s) neck and drag him behind his pickup truck.’” Federal agents contacted Hubert and asked him about the phone call; Hubert admitted to making the phone call and said he did so because he was offended by a comment Cohen had made about then-President Donald Trump.
Hubert made another phone call on Jan. 7, 2021 to the office of United States Representative Emmanuel Cleaver in Independence, Mo. In the voicemail, Hubert said, “Cleaver has got to be the dumbest (n-word) I’ve ever heard, and that don’t speak much for the black people in Kansas City and Independence and anyone else who voted for this clown. He’s dumb as a rock. A-men, a-woman? How about a noose around his neck? He’s a dumb (expletive). He’s stupid as a idiot.”
FBI agents again contacted Hubert, who admitted to making the call to Cleaver’s office; Hubert said he left the voicemail because he was upset about a statement Cleaver made in the United States House of Representatives. Hubert also acknowledged to the agents that the statements could be perceived as threatening.
Hubert pleaded guilty to two charges of threatening to harm two U.S. congressmen in a plea bargain which was approved at the United States District Court in Springfield on Thursday, June 17. Under the terms of the plea bargain, a third count, communicating a threat to injure, was dropped.
As of press time, Hubert remained in the custody of the Greene County Jail pending his transfer to the federal prison system.