Two threat sentencings in one day: the woman who sent kill texts went home until prison. The teenager who posted one tweet sat in jail 14 months.

On July 21, 2026, the two criminal threat cases pending against Rep. Nancy Mace both reached their end. The Justice Department announced that Shayla Addison, 28, of Indianapolis, had been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. The same day in Greenville, Samuel Cain, the transgender teenager known online as Roxie Wolfe, was sentenced to house arrest and five years of probation after roughly 14 months already spent in jail without bond.

Put the two case files side by side and the question asks itself: which conduct drew the harsher path through the system?

This account draws on reporting by Skylar Laird of the SC Daily Gazette, WCIV / ABC News 4, P.J. Williams of Live 5 News, and Fox Carolina, plus the federal court file in United States v. Addison.

Case one: eight messages, a bomb threat, a record, and not one night in jail before sentencing

Addison's conduct was not a tweet. Per the stipulated factual basis in her plea agreement, on the morning of January 15, 2025 she sent five texts to Mace's campaign phone ("Come outside BITCH WELL KILL YOU," "We WILL KILL YOU BITCH"), an email ("HOE WE WILL KILL YOU AND BLOW THAT WHOLE BUILDING UP BITCH COME OUTSIDE"), and two Instagram comments, all in about 13 minutes. The government's sentencing memo laid out a history of nearly identical conduct: 2019 threats to shoot up a restaurant, 50 calls to it in a day, and a 2023 felony for pouring gasoline on her mother's front steps.

The plea agreement's factual basis, with the messages verbatim. (full PDF)

And yet: the government did not seek pretrial detention. Addison was arrested on January 15, 2026, released the same day, and stayed home for the year and a half between the messages and her prison term. Prosecutors asked for the bottom of the guidelines range, 27 months, and that is what Chief U.S. District Judge James R. Sweeney II imposed, recommending a Bureau of Prisons placement that lets Addison, who is due to give birth in January 2027, stay with her baby.

Her federal defender's sentencing memo called the episode "an early-morning impulsive 13-minute angry outburst triggered by news reports of mutually disrespectful verbal conflict on the floor of the House of Representatives." That conflict was the January 14, 2025 hearing in which Mace invited Rep. Jasmine Crockett to "take it outside". Addison's texts named Jasmine and told Mace to come outside. The defense put it directly: "'If you want to take it outside' was a theme both of the exchange between representatives and Ms. Addison's missives." The same memo argued that "Victim 1's brand of performative politics has triggered legions of angry public responses."

Case two: one tweet, four bond denials, 14 months in jail

Cain's entire case is a single X post from April 26, 2025, in the wording released by Mace's office: "I'M GOING TO ASSASSINATE REPRESENTATIVE NANCY MACE WITH A GUN AND I'M BEING 100% DEAD ASS." Cain, then 19, admitted writing it when federal agents came calling and, per FITSNews, told them she "didn't mean it."

At the December 2025 bond hearing, per Fox Carolina, the defense told the court that SLED, the FBI, and the Secret Service "have not found anything that shows Wolfe is a threat," and the ATF "found no red flags since Wolfe doesn't own a gun or have access to one." The defense also noted Cain was the only public-official-threat defendant in Greenville County who had not been given bond. The judge acknowledged there had been no other case like it in the county and said his decision rested "in part on the current political climate."

Bond was denied four times. By sentencing day, July 21, 2026, Cain had spent roughly 14 months in the Greenville County Detention Center. The sentence: five years suspended to 30 months of house arrest, then five years of probation (the maximum South Carolina allows), a permanent restraining order, GPS monitoring, psychiatric treatment compliance, a nightly curfew, a firearms ban, weekly drug screens, a travel ban, and no social media and no internet except for work. News coverage does not specify whether the sentence followed a plea or a verdict.

Cain's mother, in court in December, as reported by Fox Carolina:

"This is my child and she is not a basis for a political campaign platform. This has shaken my faith in the entire system. We have lost an integral part of our family. This loss is a pain we feel every single day."

The LGBTQ outlet INTO put the civil-liberties question plainly: "Wolfe is a trans woman without celebrity status who is now at the mercy of the state for a tweet."

The ledger, side by side

	Shayla Addison	Samuel Cain (Roxie Wolfe)
Conduct	5 kill texts + bomb-threat email + 2 Instagram comments	1 post on X
Prior record	2019 shoot-up threats, 50 calls in a day, 2023 gasoline felony	None reported
Weapon or plan alleged	None	None; defense said ATF found no gun or access
Pretrial custody	0 days reported; released day of arrest	Roughly 14 months, bond denied 4 times
Sentence	27 months federal prison + 3 years supervised release	House arrest 30 months + 5 years probation + permanent internet and social media ban
Mace's presence	Press releases and X	Flew to Greenville, in-person victim impact statements at bond hearing and sentencing

Both cases ended in convictions, and this site does not relitigate them. But the record shows a young trans woman held longer awaiting trial for one tweet than the system thought necessary for a repeat offender who threatened to bomb a building. What separated the two cases was not weapons, plans, or capability. It was, in the words of the judge who kept denying Cain bond, "the current political climate," and which defendant Nancy Mace flew in to face.

Mace posted through all of it

Mace's response to the two cases was not limited to court. Within a day of Cain's arrest she had posted the booking photo, mocked Cain's gender identity, and branded the arrest a first:

May 15, 2025: "Roxie was 'deadss' arrested. We'll let the photo stand for itself because this individual is obviously unwell in more ways than..." (original post)*

May 16, 2025: "This is not Roxie Wolf, this is not a woman, and threatening my life is not a joke. Look at his smirk." (original post)

Then she quote-tweeted her own post of the jail photo: "This smirk is haunting." (original post)

After bond was denied: "Samuel Cain's father shook my hand and apologized, although it wasn't his fault... I pray Samuel Cain finds God as he faces the consequences of his actions with the full force of the law." (original post)

At the bond hearing itself, her victim impact statement went well beyond the defendant in front of her, per her office's published text: "I believe the trans movement is radicalized. Its a cult." The Dallas Express reported her quip after the arrest: "Hopefully they have makeup wipes in prison."

On sentencing day she posted about Addison:

July 21, 2026: "Today, an Indianapolis woman was sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for threatening to kill me." (original post)

Her office's sentencing-day statement claimed: "I receive over 1,300 credible threats a year and every single one is taken seriously." WISH-TV quoted her office putting the figure at "more than 1,400 threats this year." The numbers are her office's own and have not been independently audited.

The last time Mace pressed charges

In December 2024, Mace said she was "physically accosted" at the Capitol by James McIntyre, a Chicago foster-care advocate, over what a witness described as a handshake. McIntyre was arrested and charged with assaulting a government official. In April 2025, federal prosecutors dropped the charge without explanation. McIntyre's response: "the case was meant to criminalize anyone who advocates" for trans youth.

Of the three people whose prosecutions Mace has publicly celebrated, one saw charges dropped, one got the government's own minimum recommendation, and one, held for a tweet, served more pretrial time than her sentence added.

Timeline

November 26, 2024: The House introduces H.Res. 1599, condemning death threats against Mace. Addison's own defense memo would later reproduce it.
January 14, 2025: Mace to Crockett in a hearing: "take it outside."
January 15, 2025, 8:53 to 8:56 a.m.: Addison's five texts, one email, and Instagram comments.
April 21, 2025 (approx.): Mace's confrontation with a USC transgender student goes viral.
April 26, 2025: The Roxie Wolfe assassination post.
April 30, 2025: Cain admits authorship to federal agents.
May 15, 2025: SLED arrests Cain; Mace posts the booking photo.
May 16, 2025: Bond denied. Mace flies in: "I believe the trans movement is radicalized. Its a cult."
December 12, 2025: Third bond denial, resting "in part on the current political climate." Cain's mother: "This is my child."
January 13 to 15, 2026: Addison charged by information, pleads via agreement, arrested, released same day.
May 15, 2026: Cain's fourth bond request; custody continues.
July 14 to 17, 2026: Addison's combined plea and sentencing hearing; judgment entered.
July 21, 2026: DOJ announces Addison's 27 months. Cain sentenced in Greenville the same day: house arrest, probation, permanent restraining order, internet ban. Mace: "The fabric of our country is being torn from within."

Sources & related coverage

The court file (Addison, hosted here):

Addison coverage: SC Daily Gazette · WISH-TV · Post and Courier · Live 5 · WRTV · SC Daily Gazette on the plea (Jan. 2026) · LGBTQ Nation

Cain coverage: WCIV / ABC News 4 (sentencing) · Live 5 (sentencing) · Fox Carolina (third bond denial) · SC Daily Gazette (arrest) · SC Daily Gazette (bond hearing) · FITSNews · WMBF (fourth bond hearing) · INTO · Dallas Express

Mace's office: Arrest release (5/15/25) · Victim impact statement (5/16/25) · Third bond denial (12/12/25) · Addison charging (1/20/26) · Addison sentencing (7/21/26)

On this site: Shayla Addison · Samuel Cain (Roxie Wolfe) · James McIntyre · The "take it outside" exchange