Last year, a Florida man diagnosed with autism was arrested for allegedly threatening President Donald Trump. His family is calling foul.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has charged Nicholas Gallo, 33, with one felony count of making electronic threats to kill.
The defendant was arrested on December 6 after TikTok alerted Sunshine State law enforcement to his alleged threat to “shoot Donald Trump with a gun” in late November 2024.
According to Gallo’s parents and his defense attorney, the case has gotten out of hand since then.
Gallo currently faces 15 years in prison for the lone charge, but the case is being handled in a mental health court, where public access is not guaranteed. According to his lawyer, the fact that the case is in that system makes defending it more difficult.
“It was bad to arrest him,” defense attorney Scott Skier told The Palm Beach Post this week. “Charging him was worse. Moving him to mental health court was egregious, and the cumulative effect is tragic. “The state is complicit in Nick’s medical death.”
The ordeal has effectively traumatized the defendant, who is on the autism spectrum, mentally disabled, has an IQ of 50, and cannot read or write, according to his mother, who also serves as his caregiver.
“He is a 32-year-old man who wants to sleep in my bed because he is afraid someone will come and take him,” Tina Gallo told Tequesta-based ABC affiliate WPBF earlier this year.
While Nicholas Gallo was quickly released to his mother following his arrest, his mother told the Post that he has since lost his job at Goodwill, is unable to access the internet, and spends the majority of his time crying.
Tina Gallo does not think her son could have made the threats in question.
“It is heartbreaking to see him suffer like this, especially since he does not understand,” his mother told the television station.
The defendant’s attorney, for his part, believes it makes no difference whether his client made the threats.
“He does not appreciate the nature and the consequences of pretty much anything,” Skier stated to WPBF.”
Body-worn camera footage from the defendant’s arrest shows deputies explaining the situation, which does not go well.
“I am not going anywhere! “I do not want to!” Nicholas Gallo screams. “I did not do anything. I did not do nothing. I apologize. “I am sorry.”
The man’s attorney also pointed out an oddity in the case’s evidence: the defense has not provided a screenshot or recording of the alleged threat in question. Rather, the entire case is based on an email TikTok sent to law enforcement, which purports to detail the shooting threat and the accompanying claim that “Donald Trump will die.”
Skier has called the prosecution’s evidence inadmissible hearsay, but fighting the charge with traditional defenses, such as a motion to dismiss, has been hampered by the case being transferred to mental health court, according to the attorney. Skier told the Post that he believes it was an intentional procedural ploy to take the dismissal motion away from the trial judge.
“As this case is still pending, any statements from our office will be made in court or through filed pleadings,” a prosecutor’s office spokesperson told the newspaper this week.
Skier said he expected prosecutors to drop the case once they discovered the extent of Nicholas Gallo’s mental issues.
“I was surprised. “That is a fair word,” the lawyer told the television station. “But I was angered and dismayed by what I perceive to be just a complete lack of common sense.”
In the meantime, the motion to dismiss has been rendered ineffective by the transfer to mental health court, Skier stated. A competency evaluation has placed the case in legal limbo.
A state-appointed psychologist recently determined that the defendant was not mentally competent to stand trial, but suggested that this could change if he received social and behavioral training in a group home. Gallo’s mother and attorney dismissed the idea.
“If I could give him a pill and make him better and be able to get married and have a life and love somebody, I would give it to him,” the Post’s Tina Gallo said. “My son will never know happiness.”
Skier concluded: “You can not restore something that was never there.”
Nonetheless, the defense attorney stated that he was considering proceeding with the “absurdity of him being found competent” – but only as a procedural ploy to refile his motion to dismiss.
“The people in positions of power should do the right thing,” Skier told WPBF. “And the right thing here is to recognize that they made a mistake.”
