A Vernon Man Pleads Guilty to Making Threats At Work, Gets 3-Year Suspended Term

A 35-year-old Vernon man received a three-year suspended sentence this week after pleading guilty in Enfield Superior Court to making threats to kill himself and fellow employees at a Windsor Locks business in May.

Angel Montanez, of 30 Nye St., Rockville, pleaded guilty to two counts of  second-degree threatening and one count of first-degree reckless endangerment, both are Class A misdemeanors. Judge Michael R. Dannehy sentenced Montanez Tuesday to a one-year suspended term to each count consecutively and two years probation.

Montanez must also undergo anger management counseling, have no contact with his former employer, commit no new crimes, and possess no weapons.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Windsor Locks police were contacted by American Forest & Products on Neal Hagen Drive about an employee who was about to be terminated threatening to come to work, shoot himself and others.

A company official said Montanez had made statements to three employees including “if anything else happens we are one more incident away from another Budweiser shooting like in Manchester,” the warrant said. August 3 will mark the one-year anniversary of the that cost eight employees their lives in one of the most horrific instances of workplace violence in Connecticut history.

After Windsor Locks police interviewed managers and fellow employees at American Forest they decided to arrest and charge Montanez, the warrant said.