June 27, 2012|By Kevin Rector, The Baltimore Sun
A Maryland prisoner who pleaded guilty in September to sending a threatening letter to a federal judge was sentenced Wednesday to more than four years in federal prison, according to the Maryland U.S. Attorney's Office.
The man had also threatened to kill President Barack Obama.
Willie Ray Bryant, 41, is serving a 40-year sentence in Maryland and a 50-year sentence in Delaware for a string of robberies on the Eastern Shore. The federal sentence of 51 months would be served after the state sentences, were Bryant alive when they ended.
Bryant smuggled the one-page letter out of his Cumberland prison in 2010 and sent it to U.S. District Court Judge William D. Quarles Jr., who had presided over one of Bryant's cases and who received the letter in his chambers Sept. 14, 2010, according to prosecutors.
"BOOM," the letter read, "see how easy this was, next time you wont be so lucky ERM Family ANTHRAX!!"
An FBI analysis of the letter found Bryant's fingerprints on it, and imprints of letters and numbers that appeared to match Bryant's mother's name and phone number.
The FBI then asked corrections officials to monitor Bryant's mail. Shortly after, officials intercepted a letter Bryant had addressed to Obama, "excoriating the President for turning his back on Islam, and threatening to kill the President," prosecutors said.
Bryant had signed the letter and included his state prison number, prosecutors said.
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