SAN MARCOS — A 36-year-old man was convicted May 7 of calling in multiple bomb threats to Palomar College last fall.

After more than one day of deliberation, the panel of nine women and three men unanimously agreed that William M. Hall II phoned in six bomb threats on three separate occasions last fall — Sept. 13, Sept. 19 and Oct. 18 — which resulted in the evacuation and closure of portions of the San Marcos college, including the children’s day care center.

Superior Court Judge Joel M. Pressman ordered Hall back to court June 4 for a sentencing hearing, at which time he could receive more than nine months in prison.

At a preliminary hearing last February, Thomas Sanchez, an operator for the Palomar College phone system, testified that he received two of the three phone calls from the defendant. He said the caller’s demeanor was initially calm, but became more agitated in the second call. “He said, ‘We have one hour, or else hundreds of students will die,’” Sanchez testified.

Two others, an operator for Palomar College and a dispatcher for the college’s police department, also identified Hall’s voice on a recording presented by investigators, according to testimony by Sgt. Lee Martin with the Palomar Police Department at the preliminary hearing.

Further, Martin testified that records from Hall’s cell phone revealed that calls had been placed to the campus within minutes of the purported bomb threats.

Hall, a former Palomar College student, was working at the campus cafeteria when the threats were placed.

In alternate public defender John Lee’s opening statement, he urged jurors to evaluate all the evidence, including “suggestibility” by law enforcement to get the three identifications of Hall’s voice, as well as information that investigators ignored evidence that other individuals may have had access to Hall’s phone at the time.

Outside the courtroom after the trial, Deputy District Attorney Brendan McHugh said he thought Palomar College did a “good job” investigating the case. The investigators took the resources available and brought this case to the jury, who returned with six guilty verdicts, he said.