United States v. Joshua Richard Potenza

── United States v. Joshua Richard Potenza ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 17, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 24-13343 Document: 32-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 1 of 20 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-13343 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus JOSHUA RICHARD POTENZA, Defendant- Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 7:22-cr-00472-LSC-GMB-1 ____________________ Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: After appellant Joshua Potenza was found not guilty of fed- eral criminal charges by reason of insanity, the district court or- dered him committed to the custody of the Attorney General of USCA11 Case: 24-13343 Document: 32-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 2 of 20 2 Opinion of the Court 24-13343 the United States. He appeals the civil commitment order. He chal- lenges the district court’s finding that he failed to establish that his release would not create a substantial risk of bodily injury to an- other person or serious damage to another person’s property due to a present mental disease or defect. After careful review, we af- firm. I. Potenza repeatedly left harassing voicemails for victim C.W., his former college roommate and coworker, who lived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In a September 2022 voicemail, Potenza threatened to kill C.W., saying he would “cut [his] fucking head off.” Doc. 91 at 9. 1 He also threatened to “go after” C.W.’s wife and children. Id. C.W. reported the calls to Tuscaloosa police. He expressed concern about Potenza’s mental health. Potenza had said that C.W. and others were plotting against him and accused C.W. of transmitting messages to him through the radio. Potenza also had told friends that he believed magnets were controlling his thoughts. After an investigation, law enforcement determined that Po- tenza was in Texas when he left the threatening message for C.W. But, within a few days of leaving the message, Potenza traveled to 1 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries. USCA11 Case: 24-13343 Document: 32-1 Date Filed: 04/17/2026 Page: 3 of 20 24-13343 Opinion of the Court 3 Tuscaloosa. In Tuscaloosa, he was arrested by local law enforce- ment. After the arrest, officers saw Potenza engage in behaviors that suggested he was suffering from a mental illness. He told po- lice that he had killed an individual named D.F., cut the victim’s body into pieces, and stored the pieces in his vehicle. None of this was true. In addition, when Potenza spoke with police, he dis- played disorganized thinking that suggested he was suffering from mania. A law enforcement officer brought Potenza to a local hospi- tal, where he was admitted for mental health treatment. At the hos- pital, Potenza was diagnosed with schizophrenia, paranoid type. He was discharged after more than two months in the hospital.