Individual brandishing crossbow on BART pleads no contest to criminal threat charge, receives one-year jail sentence

DALY CITY — A crossbow-wielding man that told BART workers he’d kill them on a train in May pleaded no contest to a felony charge in court Tuesday and was sentenced to one year in a county jail, according to prosecutors.

Daniel Ray Baxter, a 42-year-old San Leandro resident, was on a train at the Daly City station on May 24 when two BART employees entered the car. Baxter, who had a crossbow loaded with an arrow, was shouting at himself, according to the employees, before turning to them. He then aimed the crossbow at one of them and shouted “I’ll kill you.”

Taking the threat seriously, the employees barricaded themselves in the train’s operator cab and called police, prosecutors said. Upon police arrival, Baxter was found on the floor of one of the cars and told officers that he was the one they wanted.

“The victims here, the two BART people, they fully believed he was serious about what he was going to do,” San Mateo County District Attorney Stephen Wagstaffe said. “Yes, they didn’t get stabbed, they didn’t get shot. But sometimes the mental harm, depending on the individual, will last much longer than physical harm.”

Baxter was charged with two counts of making felony threats and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. In a court hearing Tuesday, Baxter pleaded no contest to one of the charges for felony threats. In a plea deal administered by Judge Michael K. Wendler, the three other charges were dismissed and Baxter was handed a sentence of one year in county jail and two years of probation.

The court gave Baxter credit for 153 days served. Per California law, Baxter could get released from jail six months into his sentence for good behavior, meaning he could only serve three-and-a-half more months before his release. He’d then enter two years of supervised probation.