Editor’s note: This story, originally published at 5:22 p.m. April 22, 2025, was updated at 11:20 p.m. to add additional information about Tuesday’s court hearing.
The sentencing hearing for Alex Ye, a 19-year-old former Wootton High School student who was convicted of threatening mass violence in connection with his manifesto describing a school shooting plan, was delayed Tuesday afternoon for a second time in a Rockville court.
On March 3, 2024, Ye sent a “fictional story/manifesto about a high school shooting” via social media to an acquaintance, who then notified Montgomery County police, according to charging documents. Ye, a Rockville resident, was arrested by Montgomery County police in April 2024 and charged with threats of mass violence.
On Jan. 8, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Jill Cummins convicted Ye of one charge of a threat of mass violence following a two-day bench trial in December. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office.
Ye’s sentencing was initially set for Feb. 28 but was postponed to allow Ye to undergo a mental health evaluation. But Ye refused to undergo an evaluation and so prosecutors are seeking the maximum 10-year sentence in a youth offender program at the Patuxent Institution in Jessup, Maryland, according to Tuesday’s court proceedings. The institution is a maximum-security prison that specializes in providing mental health treatment to inmates, according to its website.
During Tuesday’s court hearing, Paulette Pagán, one of Ye’s attorneys, asked for another sentencing postponement because she said she needed more time to research the prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation.
Cummins agreed to reschedule the hearing for 3:30 p.m. May 28 but made it clear that she would not grant another delay.
“There will be no further postponements. It is time for Mr. Ye to be sentenced in this case,” Cummins said.
Ye has been held without bond at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility in Boyds since his arrest in April 2024.
Ye’s manifesto focused on a transgender male student who is bullied, thinks about shooting students at school and is hospitalized for mental health issues. When he sent the manifesto, Ye was undergoing inpatient treatment at a psychiatric facility, charging documents stated.
During his December trial, county prosecutors James Dietrich and Karen Mooney argued the story offered striking parallels to Ye’s life and contained details of how the main character would carry out a shooting.
However, Ye’s attorneys, Pagán and David Benowitz of the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Price and Benowitz claimed during the trial that Ye’s manifesto was fiction, didn’t include an actual shooting and wasn’t a plan for action.
The trial featured testimony from Ye’s acquaintance who received the manifesto, police officers and former Wootton principal Douglas Nelson. Police officers testified that no guns were found in Ye’s Rockville home during a police search. Ye’s messages to acquaintances, social media posts and the text of the manifesto were also presented as evidence.
In convicting Ye, Cummins sided with the prosecutors, saying that based on the evidence and context, it was clear that Ye’s manifesto was not fiction, did not qualify as protected speech and constituted a true threat. She said that although Ye changed the names of some people and places, the story’s main character experienced events that also happened in Ye’s life.
