Utah man charged in threats on LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley

A man accused of threatening the lives of high-ranking leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints apparently posted a menacing Internet message just hours before his arrest.

Jay Richard Morrison was picked up by Nevada police late Wednesday night at a rest stop in Elko, Nev., on an outstanding warrant.

About noon Wednesday, a posting to an Internet news group under the screen name prosecutors say is registered to Morrison stated: "Of course, our efforts to bring the cowardly, insane, Satanic filth at the head of the LDS Church to justice is continuing on schedule also . . . Let's see, conference is when?"

The LDS Church hosts a semiannual gathering of church leaders and members in Salt Lake City. The next general conference is April 5 and 6.

In other messages found during a Deseret News search of the news group, the writer claims at least twice that he, not LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley, is the true prophet. The author also speaks out against the federal government and the state of Missouri, where prosecutors say Morrison used to live.

Federal prosecutors last week secretly charged Morrison, 57, with two counts of sending threatening interstate communications for two separate postings, one in July and another earlier this month. The allegations were made public Thursday, shortly before the Tremonton man made his first court appearance.

In the earlier posting, Morrison allegedly writes, "So I have been thinking how I am going to kill Gordon Hinckley. (I pray that he does not die before I get the privilege of killing him)," adding he plans to behead the 92-year-old church leader.

A Feb. 6 message states: "I have been given the moral right to kill them, not only Gordon Hinckley but the entire first presidency and Quorum of the Twelve . . . These men are corrupt, totally and completely insane, completely evil. They deserve to be killed, they need to be killed and now they are going to be killed."

Church spokesman Dale Bills had no comment on the case.

U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner said law enforcement officers have been monitoring Morrison for some time. LDS Church security notified Salt Lake City police of the postings, and the police asked the FBI to assist in the investigation.

FBI agents went to Morrison's Tremonton home earlier this month, Warner said, but Morrison did not answer their knocks.