Transgender Former Teacher Found Guilty Of Threatening “Murder Spree” At High School In Controversy-Plagued Virginia County

A transgender former teacher in Loudon County, Virginia, has been found guilty after threatening to commit a “murder spree” at a local school and cannibalize the corpses of his victims. Hadyn James Dollery, who also goes by the name “Sophie” and “Cotton Candy,” was found guilty of four of five criminal charges last Friday and faces up to 25 years in prison.

The court heard how Dollery, 19, sent disturbing messages through online messaging platform Discord in April of 2026 and prompted heightened security at two local schools before his arrest. Dollery was convicted of two counts of threatening to injure or kill a person, one count of making threats on school grounds and one count of threatening to damage a building.

The four convictions carry a potential maximum prison sentence of 25 years, although no minimum sentence is required, and sentencing is expected to take place in the coming months. The case has renewed attention on school safety in Loudoun County, a Northern Virginia school district that has faced several high-profile controversies involving alleged threats, student misconduct and administrative accountability in recent years, specifically involving transgender perpetrators.

Dollery had worked as a non-licensed substitute teacher at Eagle Ridge Middle School, while John Champe High School, located in the Aldie area of Loudoun County, was identified as the target of his threats. Prior to becoming a substitute teacher, Dollery was a local student and amateur theater performer.

According to Loudoun Now, the messages at the center of the case were sent on April 15, one day after Dollery experienced a break-up with his romantic partner.

Senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dircia Schubert told jurors that Dollery contacted the former boyfriend at approximately 1:49 a.m via Discord and sent a slurry of messages, including threats to kill the former boyfriend and members of the former boyfriend’s family. Dollery also threatened members of his own family, and promised a “murder spree” at the former boyfriend’s school. Disturbingly, Dollery also described plans to cannibalize one of the victims after killing them.

Prosecutors said the threats were reported to law enforcement by the former boyfriend and another person through Safe2Talk, an application designed to allow students and community members to report potential safety concerns. The reports prompted an investigation into the communications and the possibility that the messages represented a danger to the people named and the school identified as a potential target. Schubert told the jury that Dollery later messaged the former boyfriend about returning a shirt, adding that he wanted it back “if I’m deemed fit to work after this shit I’m about to do.”

Prosecutors presented that statement as part of the wider context of the communications and Dollery’s awareness that his actions could have consequences for his employment.

School officials at Eagle Ridge Middle School, where Dollery had worked, and John Champe High School, the target of the alleged threats, reportedly considered the messages credible and assigned additional security to both schools while authorities investigated. Dollery was arrested in April, several days after the messages were sent. According to reporting on the case, he was taken into custody away from school grounds and subsequently removed from the list of available substitute teachers for Loudoun County Public Schools. The decision to increase security reflected officials’ assessment that the reported statements warranted precautionary measures while law enforcement worked to locate Dollery and evaluate the potential threat.

Evidence discussed during the trial included a box cutter found in Dollery’s backpack and information recovered from his phone. Schubert told jurors that the box cutter was in his backpack and that phone records showed the device had been used to search Google for information about blood.

During the trial, Dollery’s defense attempted to characterize the threats and weapon as “teenage drama” and Dollery being “desperate for attention,” arguing that the prosecution was blowing the threats out of proportion.

The trial therefore centered on the meaning and seriousness of the messages, the context in which they were sent and whether the evidence established the charged offenses beyond a reasonable doubt. Prosecutors argued that the alleged threats against individuals and a school, together with the other evidence presented, demonstrated the seriousness of the conduct.

After beginning deliberations on October 8, the jury returned to court the next day and found Dollery guilty on four of five total counts. The jury acquitted Dollery on the third count of threatening to injure or kill a person.

Following the verdict, defense attorneys told Judge Matthew Snow that they planned to ask the court to grant Dollery bond the following week. A bond request is separate from sentencing and does not alter the convictions returned by the jury. The court will determine whether to grant the request under the applicable legal standards, while sentencing will establish the punishment imposed for the offenses.

The maximum potential prison term reported for the four convictions is 25 years, but that figure represents the upper limit rather than a prediction of the sentence Dollery will receive. A sentencing hearing is expected to be scheduled in the coming weeks.

Dollery’s case has unfolded against the backdrop of earlier school safety controversies in Loudoun County, including a pair of sexual assaults at two separate high schools in 2021 that prompted intense public scrutiny of the school district’s handling of student misconduct allegations.

Those incidents involved a 15-year-old “gender fluid” male student who was given access to the female restrooms on the basis of his self-declared “gender identity.”

The first incident occurred at Stone Bridge High School on May 28, 2021. According to court proceedings and later investigative reports, the student, who was able to be identified as Hunter Heckel after he turned 18, sexually assaulted a female classmate in a school bathroom. Some reports suggested he was wearing a skirt at the time of the attack.

A juvenile court judge subsequently found him responsible for the offense. After he was barred from returning to Stone Bridge, the student was transferred to Broad Run High School, where he sexually assaulted another female student in an empty classroom.

A Loudoun County school board member has called for an investigation into allegations that a 15-year-old girl was raped in a school bathroom by a boy wearing a skirt, who then went on to sexually assault another girl at a different school. https://t.co/yzQ7Iqf3gc

In November 2021, a juvenile court judge found him responsible for the second incident following a no-contest plea to charges involving abduction and sexual battery. The fact that the same student was involved in two incidents at separate schools became a central focus of national public concern, particularly as questions of what role the school board’s gender identity policies played in their inadequate measures to protect female students.

In December 2022, a special grand jury released a report sharply criticizing Loudoun County Public Schools’ handling of the incidents. The report identified serious communication failures among school administrators and other agencies, as well as missed opportunities to respond more effectively before the second assault. The grand jury also concluded that former Superintendent Scott Ziegler had made a false statement during a June 2021 school board meeting when he denied knowing about sexual assaults in school bathrooms.

Loudoun County Prosecutor Defends Sending Alleged Teen Rapist To Different School: ‘He Had No History’ https://t.co/RQrJTfyIOd https://t.co/FxJ1vxUkjj

A separate third-party review made public in September 2023 also criticized the district’s handling of its Title IX responsibilities, which concern sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment in educational settings. The review found that the school system should have acted more promptly in investigating the first incident.

Heckel was subsequently released from a juvenile treatment center in 2024 despite a judge noting that his psychosexual assessment report was highly concerning.

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