A 48-year-old Honolulu man who went to federal prison for threatening to kill the U.S. president and a federal judge in Hawaii is scheduled to plead guilty Tuesday to threatening
to kill the governor of
Michigan.
Ronald William Saville, 48, of Honolulu was charged by criminal complaint June 1 with sending interstate communications containing threats. Saville was found and arrested in Abilene, Texas. Saville was ordered detained and will be transported to Hawaii for trial.
On June 4, Saville was indicted on two counts of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce. If convicted, Saville faces up to five years in prison per count and a fine of up to $250,000, plus a term of supervised release. He is scheduled for trial in the case Nov. 2 before U.S. District Judge Micah W.J. Smith.
On May 9, Saville emailed the Michigan State Police identifying himself and referencing the state Capitol in Lansing, Mich. Saville allegedly said he was “going to walk in with a gun — an AR-15 — and open fire and kill as many people as possible. I mean what I say. I’m not a joke,” according to federal court records.
Saville later that same day also allegedly sent a second email to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer stating, “just to let you know on Tuesday second, Lancy, Michigan is never gonna be the same again going to walk into the state capital shoot it up and kill as many people as possible than that I’m coming for you(.)”
He also sent a message to the Michigan State Police that he would “shoot up the place.”
Saville called the FBI on May 12 and allegedly told an FBI agent that he wanted to kill Whitmer because of her political affiliation. He told agents who interviewed him at a behavioral health program in Kailua that he had been planning a trip to Michigan to carry out his threat.
“Governor Whitmer has repeatedly denounced political violence as unacceptable, and she calls on all Americans to stand up against any and all forms
of it,” Stacey LaRouche, a spokesperson for Whitmer, told the Detroit News on
Jun. 5. “For too long, we’ve seen divisive rhetoric fuel political violence from threats here in Michigan to tragedies across the country.
FBI is investigating the case. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Heidi Turner is prosecuting the case.
Saville was previously convicted twice in federal court in Hawaii for threatening to kill former President George W. Bush in 2006, and to murder former U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway in 2012. He also allegedly threatened and admitted to making two “fictitious bomb threats” in 2025 to Walmart and Don Quijote.
Saville was sentenced to 77 months in the 2012 case and 37 months in the 2006 case.
Saville told Secret Service agents in 2006 that he was upset with Bush’s handling of the Iraq war. He told federal agents that he wold buy a .45-caliber handgun, find Bush at a public event and shoot him. He also threatened to storm the federal building in Honolulu and shoot his way through the building.
Saville also told federal agents that he would build
a bomb and detonate it on a commercial aircraft.
On Feb.13, a 40-year-old man from Center Line, Mich., was sentenced to
10 months in federal prison for posting online threats to assassinate Whitmer and making calls threatening shareholders of the DTE Energy Corp., according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In January 2025, Steven Conway called a DTE Energy call center in Milwaukee and threatened to “hunt down” and “target for assassination” the shareholders and members of the energy company, according to federal prosecutors.
A few days later, Conway posted threats to kill Whitmer on an online dating website, claiming the governor was on a list “marked for assassination.” Conway has a prior conviction for threatening to kill a judge and police officers in Macomb County, Mich.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert J. White imposed the sentence following Conway’s guilty plea to two counts of communicating threats in interstate commerce and included a two-year term of supervised release.