The father of a Utah college student charged with threatening to kill a professor over his stance on immigration on Monday said his son may not have understood that his email comments could land him in so much trouble.

Aaron Michael Heineman was born deaf and has been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which makes it difficult for the Utah Valley University student to understand appropriate social behaviors and cues, Phil Heineman said.

“I think he thought it was a free speech thing and that he could say whatever he wanted,” Heineman, of Provo, said Monday.

Prosecutors have charged Aaron Heineman with one count of interstate threatening communications, which carries a possible penalty of five years in a federal prison. The 32-year-old student was arrested Thursday by FBI agents after attending a painting class on the UVU campus, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Heineman has not yet entered a plea.

In court papers, prosecutors contend Heineman sent email threatening to kill a University of Utah professor with a Bowie knife and noose. The professor contacted university police, saying he feared for his and his family’s lives. Court papers say the emails, from two different accounts, had been routed through Sunnyvale, Calif.

An investigation found Heineman was logged on to a computer in lab at UVU’s student center during the times the email was sent, court papers show. Heinemann’s email addressed contained the words “seigheil” and “neocon.”

At a detention hearing in Salt Lake City’s federal court Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Huber argued a judge should keep Heineman behind bars pending a trial because the victim – an educator identified only as “Professor V” – and his family were so frightened.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Samuel Alba, however, ordered Aaron Heineman released from the Davis County Jail, but said he must give up an Orem apartment and live with his parents while the case winds through court. Alba also ordered Aaron Heineman wear an ankle monitor, have no access to the Internet and stay away from any person or material that promotes white supremacy or anti-immigration rhetoric.

“I understand,” Heineman said through an American Sign Language interpreter during the hearing.

Alba also ordered a mental health evaluation and said Aaron Heineman must stay enrolled at UVU in another educational program.

“I want to do that,” Heineman told the judge. “I hope I haven’t been kicked out of the program.”

Heineman is expected to be released from jail on Tuesday afternoon following a hearing to set further court dates.

Court-appointed defense attorney Lynn Donaldson said Heineman, who has never previously been accused of a crime, was more than willing to comply with Alba’s conditions of release and was himself quite frightened by what has occurred.

“The weekend in jail has been a chastening kind of experience,” Donaldson said.

Court papers say that in addition to sending message to “V,” emails were also sent to the Inclusion Center for Community and Justice at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, court papers show. Court documents also show a second person, “Professor M,” also received emails from Heineman, although it’s not clear where the second educator is employed.

Court papers include a “poem” allegedly written by Heineman in which he calls the professor anti-American and a traitor.

Investigators contend that during an interview with an FBI agent, Heineman said he has no intention to harm the professor but was “just expressing himself through poems about his anger towards people who are against America and those who try to kill democracy and support illegal immigrants.”

The documents also show Heineman consented to a police search of his Orem apartment, where officers found two concealed weapons permits issued in his name. One was issued by the state of Florida and the other by Utah.

Phil Heineman said his son does not own any firearms.