The Concord man charged with vandalizing cars outside this year’s state GOP convention, Lawrence Dunlap, agreed to jail time as part of a plea deal reached this week with prosecutors.
Dunlap, 37, was seen skateboarding outside Concord High School in April on the day of the Republican convention. He was later identified as the suspect behind dozens of keyed cars.
The deal he reached Monday in Merrimack Superior Court has all but three charges dropped. On top of that, the remaining three counts were downgraded from felonies to misdemeanors.
Dunlap was sentenced to 190 days in jail on one count, with credit for 108 days already served pretrial. On the two other charges, he is receiving a suspended sentence of 12 months. Those sentences will hang over Dunlap for the next three years to ensure he remains on good behavior. Conditions include undergoing a mental health evaluation, undertaking any necessary treatment, and making restitution to the victims for any cost not covered by their auto insurance. Dunlap is also not to contact any of the victims in the case.
Police zeroed in on Dunlap after viewing surveillance video from outside the high school, including video of a skateboard-riding figure believed responsible for damaging the cars. Once they identified the skateboarder as Dunlap, police executed a search warrant at his South Spring Street home where they found several guns, including an AR-15 rifle. Police also found a bag containing latex gloves, flex cuffs, dark clothes, face masks, a billy club, and a medieval-style mace. Raising more red flags was the document described as a suicide note manifesto Dunlap reportedly wrote.
Based on selections of the manifesto-suicide note released by police, Dunlap echoed some of the anti-Donald-Trump sentiment that appeared on his social media accounts.
“I can’t continue to exist for everyone else,” Dunlap wrote. “I truly despise humanity and all the filth we have accepted as acceptable. This world and economy requires personalities like Scott Herzog and Donald Trump. I’m sorry for the pain I know I will cause with this decision. Have me cremated and throw the ashes in the trash.” The full manifesto has not been made public. Concord Police denied NHJournal’s Right to Know request for a copy in May. On Tuesday, NHJournal renewed its request for the manifesto in light of the resolution to the case.
After Dunlap’s arrest, NHJournal discovered several anti-Trump social media messages he had posted, apparently in response to events in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021.
““Y’all[Trump supporters] lost your s–t when [Obama] tried to fix healthcare. Never mind the sheer f—ery Trump has pulled for the last for [sic] years,” Dunlap posted.
Dunlap recently lost his job as a realtor and has been suffering depression and suicidal thoughts in the past year, according to comments made by Dunlap’s wife to police.
