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WARREN -- A Girard man who pleaded guilty to vandalizing the Trumbull County Courthouse had a bench warrant issued against him by a judge after he failed to show for his sentencing hearing.
Christopher Gembicki, 36, skipped his scheduled sentencing hearing Thursday, prompting Judge Ronald J. Rice to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Gembicki avoided a January trial date after he accepted a plea agreement and pleaded guilty in early December to a single charge of vandalism.
Rice stipulated he'd accept a plea only if Gembicki completed a payment plan for the $3,490 in restitution to the court for the damages.
The surveillance footage depicted Gembicki wearing a dark-colored hoodie with the hood up as he approached the east side of the building.
Several times throughout the video, Gembicki is seen throwing rocks at the building before walking away. He turned himself in to the Warren Police Department shortly after.
Since the early October incident, the courthouse windows have been replaced.
Gembicki is no stranger to dodging court appearances -- a look at federal charges shows he was convicted for making threats toward President Barack Obama and a mother and her children, and threatening to kill and drink a California man's blood.
Gembicki had been sentenced in U.S. Northern District of Ohio court to 50 months in the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and three years of supervised release.
After several parole violations and arrest warrants had been issued related to his federal case, presiding Judge Solomon Oliver Jr. sentenced Gembicki to nine months in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
Gembicki was arrested by Cleveland police on a warrant related to federal charges in 2014.
Weathersfield police also arrested him in 2019 after he was caught illegally parked in a handicap spot. When police performed a background check, they found that Gembicki had a warrant from the U.S. Marshals Service and Cuyahoga County authorities.
The U.S. Attorney's Office was denied a request by a judge to have doctors treat Gembicki for a schizoaffective disorder by injecting him with antipsychotic medication after a previous court hearing where he expressed beliefs in the Illuminati and New World Order, along with claiming himself to be the antichrist.
Court documents show the psychiatrist who made the evaluation said without medication alleviating his mental illness, the likelihood of Gembicki being restored to competency was "poor."
The judge deemed Gembicki competent after he testified at a January 2016 hearing during which took the stand able to answer specific questions and demonstrate a "detailed understanding" of his charges.
Gembicki also admitted that he does not believe himself to be the antichrist, "nor does he believe in the existence of the Illuminati or that Russia is a part of the New World Order," the judge wrote.
Oliver also stated, "Defendant also acknowledged that in carrying out this misguided plan to 'game' the court, he 'grossly misunderstood' the consequences that could follow from his behavior."
The judge said Gembicki was "focused, clear-headed and cogent," during his testimony and did not show "irrational behavior."
INITIAL COMPLAINT
The complaint states that an FBI agent previously had investigated Gembicki for suspected involvement in "activity related to domestic terrorism," the court document states.
A witness told investigators Gembicki had been posting threats along with "disturbing" pictures of himself with "inverted crosses" and making what the document describes as "cult-like" poses.
Investigators had been tipped off to Gembicki's threatening online behavior by a witness that had sent federal agents posts of the threats towards the president from Gembicki's social media account.
His posts also expressed threats and "various white supremacist and anti-immigration" statements, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.
Gembicki had directed threats towards the witness and her children that she said made her "sick to her stomach" telling investigators that she took threats from Gembicki "very seriously."
In February 2014, Gembicki was questioned at the Broadview Heights police station by a Secret Service agent, after being arrested for threatening a person who had a protection order against him. Gembicki in the interview identified himself as a white supremacist and made suggestions toward a race war between black and white people.
Gembicki, when asked if he understood why he was being interviewed, told agents, "It must be about the stuff (he) posted on the Internet."
Agents showed Gembicki a series of screen-captured images of threats toward Obama he had made online.
An X, formerly Twitter, account, remains active for Gembicki and is riddled with tweets in all capital letters, in which he labels himself as the antichrist, among various posts making threats to celebrities and political figures.
When asked about threats to kill a mother and her children, Gembicki told investigators he hated the father of the woman's children, identified in the court document as "S.K.,"
who Gembicki said he had met while incarcerated.
Gembicki expressed a "deep hatred" for the man and told agents that he wanted to kill "anyone associated with the person he hates," the court document states.
Addressing his threats towards Obama with investigators, he told them he believed him to be a "black devil" and part of the "Black New World Order" in office at the "end of times," the document states.