HOUSTON – Federal agents arrested a Houston man in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday after he’s accused of making violent threats for weeks against a state governor, deputy U.S. Marshal, Houston attorneys and their family members, according to a newly unsealed federal criminal complaint.
According to emails obtained by KPRC 2, the threats were targeted at Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
Henry Kopia Keculah Jr., who once appeared to be a rising star in Houston’s education world, now faces three federal counts including influencing a federal official by threat, cyberstalking, and interstate threats.
“When my people get her in possession, we gonna chop her hands off, and she’s gonna be an amputee the rest of her life,” Keculah said in a now-deleted video posted on YouTube and shared with KPRC 2. “Don’t never steal from me again. Now one of your kids might not have no hands.”
In the video, he named the daughter of Greg and Angela Marcum.
“It’s hard to describe how you feel because you just kind of go numb,” Angela Marcum said. “It does scare you, you know, makes you want to fly up and you know, sit in front of her front door and walk her to her office every day.”
The Marcums have been on the receiving end of the threats for about three weeks, they said, after Houston attorney Greg Marcum successfully defended a Houston contractor in a lawsuit filed by Keculah.
The lawsuit dealt with Keculah’s denied insurance claim for water damage at his Houston home, which Greg Marcum said he was found to have caused. Keculah has now been ordered to pay more than $200,000, Greg Marcum said, mostly for attorneys’ fees, some in contract damages, and others in sanctions.
“He sent emails to me over and over again saying, ‘I’m never going to pay’,” Greg Marcum said.
The emails escalated and soon targeted more than just their family.
According to the criminal complaint, another Houston attorney connected to the same lawsuit told authorities she received threats by both email and a phone call to her law office.
In a recorded call to the law office, Keculah identified himself and told a woman on the other end the attorney needed security because “people are gonna start dying” and that there will be body bags, records state.
During the court proceedings for the lawsuit, a federal judge issued a bench warrant for Keculah and a deputy U.S. Marshal went to Keculah’s home in an attempt to serve the warrant, according to records. They saw Keculah fleeing the home. They left a notice that they attempted to serve the warrant and left. They returned a few days later to try and serve the warrant again, but Keculah was not at home.
Following this, Keculah allegedly sent an email to about 25 people, including the attorney and the deputy marshal, threatening to kill them.
In one email to the federal law enforcement agent, Keculah allegedly threatened to “light your a** up like a Christmas tree!”
In response to Governor Greg Abbott’s post on X about sending resources to California to help fight wildfires on July 28, Keculah allegedly responded “You and I in the same room, that is what you call a successful assassination attempt. (Emoji) I don’t need three attempts, I just need one! Up your security!”
The account “@Henrykeculahjr” was suspended for several days and the governor’s security detail was alerted, according to the complaint.
“By Friday, if you all don’t intervene, I will take whatever necessary actions to protect myself,” Keculah wrote in an email obtained by KPRC 2. “That even includes killing Governor Greg Abbott, because I am under duress. You can check every award I have won.”
That’s where Keculah included a link to the Houston Business Journal, which named him a “40 Under 40″ honoree in 2019. The headline described him as a former teacher who dedicated his life to helping underserved students.
A quick Internet search reveals Keculah has been a speaker at SXSW, is President of the Liberian Association of Greater Houston, and he founded a company called 4.0 GPA, which he claims “has worked with some of the biggest school districts in the United States.”
FBI Special Agents used phone data to track his cell phone to Virginia, and in calls with him, he allegedly admitted to making the threats.
Records show he was arrested in Alexandria, Virginia, on Friday, the day after the warrant was signed and about three weeks after the threatening contact began for the Marcums.
They are relieved he’s in custody but uneasy that Keculah was so close to their daughter, who had been a target of the threats, all while they thought he was still in Texas. It’s not clear why he was in that region.
“You never know what’s going to turn them into leaving their computer behind and actually, you know, going out and literally hurting someone,” Angela Marcum said.
Keculah had been wanted in Harris County since July 28 for similar allegations, state court records show, but prosecutors filed to dismiss the cases on Aug. 8 citing insufficient evidence.
“Hopefully justice will be served,” Greg Marcum said.
Keculah has a preliminary and detention hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon in Virginia.
“I don’t want him to let him bond out that close to my child that he’s threatened their life,” Angela Marcum said.
