Jan. 6 — Mercer — Common Pleas President Judge Daniel P. Wallace wrote a threatening letter in the Hermitage Walmart bathroom cubicle to quit work early. He said it was the strangest crime he had ever seen.
On Friday, Wallace sentenced Skye McKenzie Bowser, 20, of 3490 Lamor Road in the Hermitage, to 18 months of probation after failing to contest terrorist threat charges in November.
Wallace couldn’t believe his ears when Bowser told him that the manager at the time who told her to write the threat was still working at Subway, now in the Hermitage Town Plaza. Its employment status was confirmed by Assistant District Attorney Jacob Sander.
“Just in case,” Wallace said.
Peter Ray Pope, 43, of 91 Lilac Drive, West Middlesex, is expected to be sentenced later this month after claiming he did not contest the terrorist threats.
“He told her to write a threatening letter so she could leave her job early and he’s still working there,” Wallace said.
Bowser, who is pregnant, did not update his employment status.
Police and firefighters responded to Walmart, 1275 N. Hermitage Road, at 6:57 pm on June 15, according to the police criminal complaint. This was after a customer told an employee about the bomb threats written on the front toilet stall.
Police said someone had written a threatening note to the women’s and men’s restroom kiosks, saying there was a bomb in the toy section and another in the store.
The police evacuated and closed the store. Police said three of his K-9s that detected the bomb searched the store, including both restrooms, while the office and craft corridor were searched for evidence, but nothing happened. It is said that
Two days later, police learned through Walmart security that a Subway employee had reported that her manager, Pope, had tried to talk her into writing a bomb threat in the bathroom.
After the employee refused, police said the Pope asked Bowser to do it.
Video surveillance shows that Pope went to the restroom at 5:13pm that day and Bowser went to the women’s restroom at 6:09pm that day.
Minutes after Bowser returned to Subway, Pope was seen contacting a Walmart employee, who told police a customer had told him there was a bomb in the store.
Bowser said in an interview that Pope wrote her a bomb threat and asked her to leave work early. He told her to speak, and he reported it to a Walmart employee, police said.
In an interview with police, Pope denied writing anything on the bathroom wall or telling anyone to do so.
Follow Melissa Klaric on Twitter @HeraldKlaric or email mklaric@sharonherald.com.
