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A Facebook post from a Marine veteran caught the attention of law enforcement and resulted in the arrest of an Orange County man that allegedly crossed the “freedom of speech” line into that of “terroristic threat” territory.
Daniel Troy Leblanc, 44, of Orange, was arrested Jan. 15, accused of a terroristic threat aimed at House Speaker and Southeast Texas State Rep. Dade Phelan.
Leblanc was taken to the Jefferson County Correctional Facility on Jan. 17 under a $500,000 bond set by Justice of the Peace Ben Collins Sr., who also ordered that, should Leblanc post bond, the charged homegrown terrorizer is to avoid all contact with Phelan and wear a GPS ankle monitor so that authorities are always aware of the suspect’s whereabouts.
Leblanc, who operates on a page entitled “D.T. Lbc” and uses the identity as a pseudonym on the Facebook account he created in 2017, opines on array of topics including his individual struggles, the Bible, prophecy, religion, God, Revelation, conspiracy theories, a believed fake moon landing, mark of the beast, judicial system, politics, the environment… the list goes on.
He has also made references to 279th District Judge Randy Shelton, his ex-wife’s attorney, Jolei Shipley,
The social media page operated by the veteran Marine is populated with a plethora of written rantings, images, videos, screenshots of phone conversations with his ex-wife, internet pages and an array of negative references to the judge that oversaw his divorce proceedings, 279th District Court Judge Randy Shelton, called “279,” as well as his ex-wife’s divorce attorney, Jolei Shipley, mockingly nicknamed “JOJO.” The day of the alleged Phelan threat, Leblanc posted 19 times to Facebook alone between 12:37 a.m. and 10:27 p.m. Follow-up postings made on Jan. 20 and Jan. 22 were not visible to the public, was only shared with a small group of people or deleted.
Although many of Leblanc’s posts invoke discourse, one post in particular grabbed the attention of special agents of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Criminal Investigations Division (CID).
Jan. 14, LeBlanc started off his post with: “In no way will I endorse Dade Phelan and his fake hidden agenda ways.”
So far, nothing to report. Leblanc continued on, claiming that Phelan is writing rules to allow pedophiles access to children, and that women in general “been bitchin for more because God doesn’t provide enough.”
“They still ain’t satisfied and they have now made men so weak, they don’t even know how to lead anymore,” Leblanc further attached to all women.
Still, nothing criminal. Leblanc goes on; in allegedly standing up to protect unnamed children harmed over Phelan’s “filthy money,” investigators retort, Leblanc crosses a line with: “... I AM... RIGHT NOW ... ONE SHOT ... ONE KILL ... 2,500M AWAY ... 0230 ... IN YOUR RIGHT TEMPLE…” in all caps, of course.
Mandi Leblanc, Daniel’s wife, claimed her husband’s post was not aimed at Phelan or anyone else. She said her husband explained it to her in military wording.
“He is a Marine and Marines have a talk about ‘one shot, one kill’ and it doesn’t just mean exactly that,” she said.
Mandi noted, according to Daniel, the phrase “one shot, one kill” means, “Cut the bullshit, work smarter not harder, do it the fastest most precise route you can...,” adding that, “He’s talking about AI (artificial intelligence), (Elon) Musk, Baphomet and all the evil that’s in the world.”
Contrary to Mandi’s assertion, Marine lingo could not be found to support the claim. Support could be found for “one shot, one kill” to reference Marine sniper activity – especially since 2,500M is the exact distance attributed to the specialized shooting.
According to Mandi, she’s known Daniel “since we were born,” and the pair became best friends at age 5. The Leblancs both graduated from Bridge City High School; they were married in January 2022.
Mandi Leblanc’s father, Craig Nugent, said he believes his son-in-law was arrested by DPS because of the Jan. 14 post about Phelan.
“They came to my house, initially,” said Nugent. “They told me, at that point in time, that all they wanted to do was talk to him so they could close out the case.”
Nugent said DPS never mentioned a word about having a warrant for Daniel’s arrest or that they were there to arrest him.
“The next day, I got a call from an investigator and he asked me if I’d talked to Daniel,” Nugent said, adding that he hadn’t talked to his son-in-law at that time. “He told me specifically again that he wanted to talk to Daniel to close out the report.”
Mandi said Daniel talked to DPS on Jan. 15 to close out the case.
“He talked to them for a few minutes and they asked if they could meet up to close out the case,” she said. “So, we said yes, and we would go meet them.”
Mandi noted Daniel sent a text to one of the investigators and asked if the law enforcer was in possession of an arrest warrant. The investigator reportedly advised: “No, sir.”
Despite Daniel warning that he was well versed in the art of “dirty tricks,” Mandy said her husband was the victim of a trick he didn’t see coming.
“They got out and they were talking with Daniel then, the next thing you know, two DPS come pulling up behind us,” Mandi recalled of her husband’s arrest for allegedly terrorizing a state official. “They said they had a warrant, a pocket warrant, written by the justice of the peace.”
Daniel’s detainment fulfilled a premonition Mandi said her husband shared about a month prior; Daniel told his father-in-law that people were going to come looking for him.
“I’ve had several one-on-one conversations with Daniel over the past several months,” Nugent shared with The Examiner. “He definitely feels like the whole judicial system is skewed.
“It all started with an issue with his ex-wife and the court over child support money and trying to take his parental rights away from him.”
Daniel and his first wife, married while both were in the Marine Corps, divorced in 2019 after 17 years of marriage. Since then, there has been a litany of court hearings pursuant to the divorce, child custody and child support, with Daniel ordered to pay $1,300 a month in child support over strenuous objection. During the proceedings, Daniel was suspected of attempting to bring a firearm into the Jefferson County Courthouse but no charges can be verified for the allegation. Daniel later overcame an October 2023 jury trial to sever his parental rights but was held in contempt the same year and forced to serve six months in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility because he refused to pay the court ordered child support for his six children.
Nugent said Daniel wants to challenge the judicial system through the courts – legally.
“When someone reads something, they can assume what they want,” he said. “You don’t know exactly what the individual means until you talk to them one-on-one.”
At press time, Leblanc was still in the custody of Jefferson County jail staff. The charge of terroristic threat, a third-degree felony, carries a possible penalty of imprisonment in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for any term of not more than 10 years or less than two years.