A former Northeastern University virtual reality lab manager who faked a bomb explosion that injured only himself but required a major police response will spend a year in prison for his crime.

“Bomb hoaxes are not a harmless act, they inflict fear, divert resources and put both first responders and the public at real risk as they race to the scene,” U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy said following the sentencing. “This sentence should send a clear message to everyone who engages in bomb threats and swatting incidents that you will be held accountable and that one phone call may land you in jail.”

U.S. District Court Senior Judge William G. Young on Monday sentenced Jason Duhaime, 47, formerly of both Massachusetts and San Antonio, to a year and a day in prison to be followed by two years of supervised release.

Duhaime was convicted in June of last year of intentionally conveying false and misleading information related to an explosive device and two counts of making materially false statements to a federal law enforcement agent.

Duhaime at around 7 p.m. on Sept. 13, 2022, called the Northeastern University Police Department and reported that he was injured by sharp objects that flew out of a plastic case he was working on in the lab. He said the case was one of two Pelican-style cases. Pelican is a U.S. manufacturer of a variety of items and are known especially for their hard plastic-shelled protective cases.

Duhaime, who was then employed by the university as the “New Technology Manager” and the director of the school’s Immersive Media Lab, said the case included an anonymous “violent note” that threatened to destroy the lab.

The note rambled about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and the U.S. government and a conspiracy to “change us as a world” by making society dependent on virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

“It has come to our attention that this VR lab is trying to change us as a world! Trying to get us to live in a world that we only communicate through headsets and live in a land called the METEVERSE,” the note states. “… You are trying to change the fabric of the ideology of a people (sic)! Trying to get us all to live inside a virtual (expletive)ed up world!!!!”

The note is rife with extra explanation marks and capitalization used for emphasis. It also has numerous misspellings including for what should be “metaverse,” which Merriam-Webster defines as “a persistent virtual environment that allows access to and interaction between multiple individual virtual realities.”

“We know you are working with Mr. Mark Zuckerberg and the US government!!!!!” the note continues. “… We know he has employed your MSO team and you are secretly traveling to see him and give him test results!!! We know he hands you secret documents to travel back with!!!!”

It concludes with an ominous tone: “Take notice!!! You have 2 months to take operations down or else!!!!! WE ARE WATCHING YOU.”

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Duhaime’s report and the existence of a second, unopened case “triggered a significant law enforcement response that included, among other things, the assistance of the Boston Police Department’s bomb squad, multiple federal and state law enforcement agencies and the evacuation of a portion of the Northeastern campus.”

Duhaime denied that he was involved in any way with the situation during questioning by police, according to federal prosecutors. However, investigators were not convinced. They performed a forensic search of laptop computers in his office and found “a word-for-word electronic copy of the anonymous threat letter” on one of them. They then determined he had printed the letter out just hours before calling in the explosion.

A picture of Pelican case that the US District Attorney’s office furnished in connection to the arrest of Jason Duhaime for reporting an explosion at the campus of Northeastern University. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald)