Black Student Who Threatened to Kill Fellow Black Students Claims She Was Trying to ‘Expose Racism’ — Judge Isn’t Happy About Plea Deal

A New Jersey judge sentenced an African-American Kean University graduate to 90 days in jail and five years probation Friday for posting threatening tweets about killing black students at the school, according to the New Jersey Star-Ledger.

Kayla McKelvey was accused of creating a Twitter account and tweeting the threats in order to draw attention to a protest of alleged racism on campus.

McKelvey admitted to writing the tweets and said she did so because she wanted to raise awareness about racism at the school.

According to the Star-Ledger, McKelvey, 25, said she "made a poor error in judgment to shine a light on an issue that is important to me.”

“My intent was to expose racism on campus," McKelvey said.

She pleaded guilty to a charge of creating a false public alarm, apologized to local police and agreed to pay $82,328 in restitution for their efforts after her tweets caused alarm. The prosecutor's office agreed to a plea deal where McKelvey would serve a three-month sentence.

Judge Robert Mega, however, expressed dissatisfaction with the deal, calling the prosecutor up to defend it.

"Why shouldn't I reject this plea?" Mega asked. "[The threats] created a sense of terror among the university society.”

Mega added five years probation to McKelvey’s sentence