(CNN) — A Mississippi man is in jail after being accused of threatening to kill US Senator Roger Wicker last week.
William C. Sappington is charged with threatening to injure or kill a United States official, a federal offense, and was ordered remanded to prison awaiting trial by a US coroner during a hearing on Wednesday.
The FBI stated in court documents that Sappington had gone to Wicker’s cousin’s home in Hickory Flat, Mississippi, last Wednesday looking for the Republican senator from Mississippi.
Wicker’s cousin told an FBI agent that Sappington approached the back door of his home, asked for the senator, then told him, “Tell him I’m going to kill him,” the documents show.
Wicker’s cousin George asked Sappington why he was looking for the senator and he replied, “Because he knows,” according to court documents.
George Wicker told Sappington that he would try to contact the senator, but the senator called the police, and officers arrived quickly, according to the documents.
The next day, an FBI agent interviewed Sappington in jail and he denied ever stating that he wanted to kill Senator Wicker, according to court records.
“Sappington told me that if he wanted to kill someone, he would just do it,” the FBI agent stated in the court documents.
CNN contacted Sappington’s lawyers.
The Associated Press first reported Sappington’s arrest.
Court records show that Sappington was arrested in 2014 for aggravated assault against his brother.
Records indicate that Sappington had been trying to find a lawyer “to get justice for his arrest in 2014” and that he felt he had been kidnapped by law enforcement, but was unable to find a lawyer to take his case.
“Sappington felt that speaking to the senator representing his area was his last course of action to obtain justice,” the FBI said in court records.
Someone gave Sappington the address of the senator’s cousin, the FBI said.
“Sappington then explained to George Wicker that Roger Wicker could be sentenced to death for conspiring to kidnap Sappington back in 2014,” according to court records.
Court records show that, in addition to having a criminal record, Sappington engaged “in criminal activity while on probation or supervision” and that he has a “history of violence or use of weapons.”
