Deltona Man Arrested For Threats Against Cancer Victim's Family

UPDATE (Jan. 8, 2019) During an arraignment this afternoon, Pinkham was ordered held on $10,000 bail and told not to contact Trent’s family by telephone, social media or in any other way. Deltona, FL - A Deltona man used a fake name online to make death threats against the family of an Indiana man who died from bone cancer last week. That's the word from the Volusia County Sheriff's Office after deputies acted on a tip from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department and arrested 39-year-old John M. Pinkham yesterday afternoon (January 7th). VCSO spokesperson Andrew Gant says those threats were made against the family of 20-year-old Tyler Trent, a Purdue University student whose association with the school's athletic programs helped raise over $100,000 for cancer research before he passed away. "Detectives determined Pinkham made multiple posts using an alias on Trent’s Facebook page," Gant added. "The posts included threats of violence at a Celebration of Life [ceremony] that was scheduled for today." Among some of the comments posted under the name "Julie Homan" were threats to kill Trent's mother and promises to "appear like the reaper" and to "make headlines" during the funeral, per VCSO. "Cant wait till I can choke the life out of you," stated a VCSO press release, attributing the quote to Pinham on social media. "Just wait until yall hear what I do at his funeral..just watch I will be talked about forever..this is no idol threat." Following the arrest, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood donated to the Tyler Trent Cancer Research Endowment at Purdue and encouraged others to do the same on social media.  

Today our detectives arrested an Internet Tough Guy in Deltona who made death threats against the mother of @BoilerFootball's @theTylerTrent. Indianapolis Metro Police made this possible! In honor of Tyler (inspiration to us all) please join me & give to https://t.co/em5ksxaY5d pic.twitter.com/BmzT6CYHlX

— Mike Chitwood (@SheriffChitwood) January 7, 2019

As of this morning, Pinkham is at Volusia County Jail on $10,000 bond, charged with a felony count of making written threats to kill or injure. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance this afternoon at 1:30.