Local News

Man pleads guilty to threatening Perdue

Dennis Matthew McDermott pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. He has already served 23 days in jail since his arrest.

Posted 2011-04-18T19:30:22+00:00 - Updated 2011-04-18T19:24:00+00:00

Dennis Matthew McDermott appears in court on March 28, 2011, on a charge that he threatened to kill Gov. Beverly Perdue.

A Youngsville man pleaded guilty Monday to threatening Gov. Beverly Perdue last month.

Dennis Matthew McDermott, 30, of 1071 Holden Road, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of communicating threats and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. He has already served 23 days in jail since his arrest.

Workers at a state Division of Motor Vehicles license plate office in Wake Forest told Highway Patrol troopers that McDermott got angry during a visit to the office and said, "When you see Bev Perdue with a .38 slug in her head, I did it."

The license plate office workers told troopers that he then added, "Call the law, and I'll take care of them, too."

McDermott still faces an involuntary manslaughter charge in the September 2009 death of John Satterwhite.

Satterwhite, 85, a World War II veteran, was walking through the woods near his home in Henderson when he was shot and killed. Vance County authorities said McDermott and two other men were shooting at targets nearby, and a stray bullet hit Satterwhite.