Man Said to Idolize Va. Tech Shooter Faces Trial

Police narrowed in on Napa in part because he had gotten into a loud argument with some students two days before the e-mails were sent and shouted at them, "Now you see how things like this could happen at Virginia Tech," Seda said.

Police in Virginia and Nevada worked with FBI and ATF agents and a few days later searched Napa's home in Henderson, where he lived with his parents.

"He's a pretty intense individual," said Seda, who participated in the search of Napa's house. He said people who knew Napa described him as a loner who idolized Cho and cheered for Cho when he watched TV news reports about the Virginia Tech shooting.

Seda said that Napa's intensity, small frame and close-cropped hair caused him to "resemble the Virginia Tech shooter."

Spence, Napa's attorney, argued in court that the case should be dismissed because there was no direct threat in the e-mails, but Judge James C. Turk disagreed.

Spence said that some of Napa's guns, including a Glock 19 and a Walther PPK, a type of pistol, might have been the same as those used by Cho but that they are common firearms. Napa obtained the guns legally, authorities said.

Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said that such threats are emotionally harrowing for the university community. The actions of Penn State students who dressed up for Halloween 2007 as Cho's victims threw "everybody for a loop," Hincker said.

"Anything that is a bona fide threat or is even the least bit offensive is hard for the healing process," he said. "We're still a healing campus." A Harrisburg, Pa., man, Steven Voneida, was convicted in February 2008 of transmitting a communication threat and sentenced to 33 months in prison. In the days after the Virginia Tech rampage, Voneida put on his MySpace page the same "ballad of Cho Seung-hui" that Napa had sent in his e-mails. Voneida's MySpace page included the headline "Virginia Tech Massacre: They got what they deserved" and the line "Someday I will make the Virginia Tech incident look like a trip to an amusement park."

Since the massacre, Virginia Tech officials say, more students have sought counseling services, up from 8,000 in 2005-06 to 11,000 in 2007-08.

"Our antennae are really, really up for students who are in distress," Hincker said.

When the campus tests its alarm system, the school notifies in advance students who were among the 26 injured in Cho's rampage, Hincker said. "Several of them elect not to be in class when the alarms go off," he said.

To mark the anniversary of the shooting this year, the university plans to cancel classes, light a ceremonial candle and have student cadets stand guard throughout the day. There will be a commemoration on the Drillfield, wreaths will be placed at the site of a memorial and a 5K run will be held, with memorial T-shirts.

Additionally, the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention, formed after the shooting, will host an open house at its location in the renovated Norris Hall, in the classrooms where most of the students and faculty members were killed.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.