A Dallas federal jury convicted a man for mailing threatening communications and hoax biological weapons, announced United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Ryan Raybould.Following a two-day trial and only one hour of deliberation, the jury convicted Donald Ray McCray, 67, of Dallas, on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, of three counts of mailing threatening communications to several United States District Court Judges in the Northern District of Texas and the Eastern District of New York, and one count of sending hoax biological weapons to the Fort Worth, Texas Federal Courthouse.“Threats and disruptions to the orderly functioning of our federal courts will not be tolerated. And anyone who threatens a NDTX federal judge or NDTX employee will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould. “With this verdict, North Texas residents held the defendant accountable for his threats and attempts to undermine our judiciary.”“The FBI takes threats to federal officials and courthouse personnel seriously.
We would like to thank our state, local, and federal law enforcement partners who assisted in this investigation. This collaborative effort ensured that this offender was held accountable for threatening our judicial system,” said FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge R. Joseph Rothrock.According to evidence presented at trial, McCray, while incarcerated in a Texas state prison, sent multiple threatening letters containing white powder to the clerk of courts at the Fort Worth and Amarillo federal courthouses in March 2025. In those letters, McCray threatened to kill multiple state and federal government employees, including federal district court judges.
After being indicted in June 2025, McCray appeared at a hearing in federal court and made further threats against various government employees and district court judges.The jury also heard evidence that when one of McCray’s threatening letters contained white powder was received at the federal courthouse in Fort Worth, it effectively shut down the courthouse and required a full HAZMAT response from multiple agencies before it could be rendered safe for its occupants and the public. Evidence at trial further established that in 2019, McCray was convicted in a Texas state court of threatening a Texas state judge under similar circumstances. Among other exhibits, the government introduced McCray’s threatening letters, transcripts of the previous court hearing where he made additional threatening statements, and evidence related to the HAZMAT testing of the white powder sent by McCray.McCray is set for sentencing on August 19, 2026, before U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr, who presided over the trial.
McCray faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each count of mailing threatening communications and up to five years in federal prison for the hoax biological weapons conviction. He also faces a $250,000 fine. This case was investigated and coordinated by multiple agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S.
Postal Inspectors Service, Ft. Worth Police Department, Ft. Worth Fire Department, Dallas County Department of Health and Human Services, Tarrant County Department of Public Health, the Texas Tech Biological Threat Research Laboratory, and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Office of Inspector General. Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Theodore Parran III and Chad E. Meacham prosecuted the case.