Teenager jailed over ’sarcastic’ Facebook post out on bail

San Antonio resident Justin Carter, 19, has been in jail for nearly four months. Carter says he has been assaulted repeatedly by other inmates and subsequently placed in solitary confinement. According to his lawyer, Carter is so depressed that he’s on suicide watch, meaning that the jail guards have stripped him of his clothes and replaced them with only a gown.

If convicted, Carter could expect up to a decade more of these conditions for the third-degree felony of making ”terroristic threats.” All over a Facebook post his family and attorney say was entirely joking.

Carter’s troubles began on Feb. 13 of this year. During an argument on Facebook over the online multiplayer game League of Legends, some told Carter that he was ”crazy,” according to his defense attorney, Donald Flanary III. Carter replied: ”I’m f—ed in the head alright. I think I’ma shoot up a kindergarten and watch the blood of the innocent rain down and eat the beating heart of one of them.”

Flanary told msnbc the remark was ”crass and distasteful and crude,” but argued that it did not constitute a legitimate threat.

”I think the whole conversation was crude and crass, as are many conversations online with people,” he said. But he believes that the full context, which the state has not acquired from Facebook, ”would indicate unequivocally that [Carter’s remark] was a joke.”

Learn More: https://www.msnbc.com/all/teenager-jailed-over-sarcastic-facebook-post-out-bail-msna65273