South Carolina man sentenced to 5 years for harassment, terroristic threat
Published 1:23 pm Monday, November 24, 2025
Sentencing was handed down on November 17, 2025, by a Rusk County jury for a 37-year-old South Carolina man who tormented Rusk County dispatchers with threats, until his arrest and extradition in July of this year.
The jury was empaneled for the trial of Travis Andrew Halbert (CR25-262) in the 4th Judicial District Court of Rusk County, Texas, the honorable David Hill presiding.
Halbert surprised everyone when at the last moment he changed his plea from “not guilty” to “guilty”. He was charged with the felonious offense of terroristic threat, in that he placed over 70 telephone calls to the Rusk County Sheriff’s Department over a three day period, some of those telephone calls specifically threatened the dispatchers answering the sheriff’s phone, including their families. Another phone call threatened to “rain down hell-fire” on the sheriff’s office by firebombing the department.
The case was independently investigated by the Department of Public Safety/Texas Ranger’s Division. The case was prosecuted by the Rusk County District attorney, Micheal Jimerson and first assistant, Allen W. Ross.
The jury assessed Mr. Halbert’s punishment at five years incarceration in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
The District Attorney would like to thank Sheriff John Wayne Valdez and his staff for professionally handling this situation and also Texas Ranger Marlow for his invaluable assistance in this investigation and prosecution.