Man plotted to kill SLO County district attorney, sentenced to prison

A Missouri man who investigators say plotted to kill San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, his family, and students at a Templeton school has been sentenced to 24 months in federal prison, CalCoastNews reported.

David Platek was sentenced Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. Because he has already served time in custody since his January 2025 arrest, Platek is expected to be released in January 2027. Upon release, he will serve three years of supervised release and is barred from contacting Dow or his family.

The sentence closes a chapter on a case that rattled San Luis Obispo County's legal and political community — and put the county's top prosecutor and his family under law enforcement protection over a holiday season.

A plea deal that trimmed the charges

Platek had faced four counts of making terrorist threats. To secure a shorter sentence, he pleaded guilty to one count: sending a threat across state lines to take the life of Dow, his family, and other schoolchildren in San Luis Obispo County.

At the sentencing hearing, Platek admitted he had sent messages across state lines threatening to injure Dow, his family, and schoolchildren, according to CalCoastNews.

Both Dan and Wendy Dow addressed the court. The district attorney said that in 21 years as a prosecutor, he had never before been the victim of a crime.

"This horrific experience really highlights for me the great impact of our criminal and victim justice system on each and every victim," Dow said. "My wife and my children did not sign up to be a prosecutor and they should never have been the target of Mr. Platek's anger and threats simply because of my chosen profession."

Dow described the toll on his family during the winter of 2024, saying they could not go anywhere — "even our church" — without a law enforcement protection detail, and that they feared Platek could show up at any time after his phone went off grid.

Wendy Dow told the court the punishment would "not be enough," but said she hoped Platek would eventually recognize the consequences of his own choices. "I have prayed for you, I will continue to pray for you and I will ask others to join me in this," she said.

The plot and the arrest

According to CalCoastNews, the FBI disrupted Platek's plan on Jan. 2, 2025. Investigators say he intended to kill Dow and then detonate a bomb at Templeton High School, with the goal of murdering 400 people — an act he described as retribution for his 2019 arrest.

From Dec. 7 through Dec. 16, 2024, Platek sent dozens of texts to an acquaintance outlining his plans for revenge while also sending threats to Dow via social media, CalCoastNews reported. The threats were reported over winter break, and federal agents took Platek into custody in Missouri before students returned to school.

Investigators said Platek planned to build a bomb from explosives and fertilizer, rent a van, and drive from Missouri to San Luis Obispo County. After killing Dow, he intended to detonate the device at the school the prosecutor's children attended.

In messages quoted by CalCoastNews, Platek wrote that "killing kids is the most pain I can inflict" and that "SLO wants to destroy my life, I'll blow up one of their schools."

Roots in local political feuding

The plot's origins trace back to a 2019 identity theft case rooted in San Luis Obispo County's often-toxic local politics.

Platek, who worked as a political consultant and provided IT services to former Supervisor Adam Hill and other local candidates, was charged with two counts of felony identity theft and a related misdemeanor after a District Attorney's Office investigation.

Prosecutors alleged that in 2018, Platek created a Facebook page impersonating Kevin Rice, a local activist who frequently criticized Hill and his allies in the Tribune's comment sections. Under Rice's identity, prosecutors said, Platek posted a comment on an article about a convicted sex offender claiming Rice had also abused children.

Hill died by suicide in 2020 after FBI agents raided his county office.

Platek's criminal case dragged on for years. According to CalCoastNews, more than 46 preliminary hearing dates were continued at his request, canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or vacated. When a preliminary hearing finally proceeded in October 2022, the court ruled the case could go forward only as a misdemeanor, and prosecutors ultimately agreed to dismiss it after four years.

Platek told investigators the publicity surrounding his arrest ruined his professional career — the grievance he cited as motivation for the murder and bombing plot.

What comes next

For San Luis Obispo County residents, the case is a stark reminder of how local political disputes can escalate into threats against public officials — and how federal intervention prevented what investigators describe as a mass casualty plan.

Platek's expected release in January 2027 means the protective conditions will become significant: three years of supervised release and a prohibition on contacting the Dow family. How those conditions are enforced, and whether they're sufficient, may remain a concern for the district attorney's office and local law enforcement.

The case also raises ongoing questions about the handling of the underlying 2019 identity theft prosecution, which stretched across dozens of court dates before being dismissed — a delay Platek himself helped drive through repeated continuance requests, according to CalCoastNews.

Dan Dow, meanwhile, continues to serve as district attorney, now with the distinction of having been — by his own account — a crime victim for the first time in more than two decades as a prosecutor.