Federal Judge Won’t Release UCLA Lecturer Found Not Guilty By Reason Of Insanity After Circulating Threats

By Amanda Pampuro

Courthouse News Service – August 15, 2025

DENVER (CN) — A federal judge on Monday ordered a former University of California, Los Angeles philosophy lecturer to be committed to a state facility for continuing mental health treatment after he was found not guilty by reason of insanity of four charges stemming from a threatening manifesto promising mass violence.

“In this case, both sides have agreed that an order of commitment would be appropriate in this matter,” U.S. District Judge Regina Rodriguez said. “The court has reviewed the filings in this matter and does conclude such an order of commitment would be in order in this case.”

According to federal prosecutors, on Jan. 31, 2022, Matthew Harris shared a Google Drive link to an 803-page manifesto titled “Death Sentences” with 35 people named. The manifesto contained a variety of threats, employing the words “kill” 7,512 times, “shoot” 2,512 times, and “bomb” 2,489 times.

Prosecutors say Harris also posted a video titled “UCLA Philosophy (Mass Shooting)” to his YouTube channel. Investigators in an affidavit said the footage “depicts Harris talking with images from the 2003 movie ‘Zero Day,’ which depicts a movie version of the surveillance cameras at the Columbine school shooting.”

Harris previously taught philosophy at UCLA. In 2021, he sent his mother an email describing plans to murder another philosophy professor who he claimed gave him schizophrenia… Read More