Hearing set for Oklahoma man accused in Humboldt County threat calls

A hearing is set in Humboldt County Superior Court for Daryl Ray Jones, the 31-year-old Oklahoma resident accused in a wave of threatening calls that reached more than 20 Humboldt County schools and businesses. The case has already moved through arrest, a competency delay, preliminary hearing testimony and a judge’s ruling that upheld more than 30 counts.

The alleged threat wave began forcing local institutions to react as if the danger was real. Arcata police announced the arrest of a suspect in March 2025 after the calls disrupted schools and businesses across the county, stretching from Arcata and Eureka to more rural parts of Humboldt. In a county where many public agencies serve small towns and long response areas, the case pushed police, school officials and court staff into a wider public-safety response even though the accused man lived in Oklahoma.

By late March 2025, Jones had been arrested on multiple felony counts for making alleged terrorist threats to local schools. The case then slowed in April, when the trial was delayed so the court could evaluate his competency. That pause extended the time Humboldt agencies had to keep working through a case tied to threats that crossed state lines but landed locally.

The record grew more detailed in August 2025, when officers described the threatening phone calls during a preliminary hearing. The next day, the court said the hearing would not be finished until October. In January 2026, officers from both the Arcata Police Department and the Fortuna Police Department testified when the preliminary hearing resumed, and the threats were described as including graphic statements about harming and killing children at local schools.

By March 10, 2026, a judge had upheld more than 30 counts against Jones. That ruling marked another step in a case that has stretched across more than a year and multiple court stages, from the initial arrest through competency review and evidentiary testimony.

The hearing now set in Humboldt County Superior Court is the next public checkpoint in that process. It gives judges and attorneys a chance to address the status of the allegations, possible evidence issues, and the path forward in a case that has already consumed local law-enforcement attention and shaken schools and businesses that had to treat the calls as credible threats.