Colorado Man Sentenced to 40 Months in Federal Prison for Threatening to Kill President

Click Images/iStock/Thinkstock(DENVER) — A Jefferson County, Colo., inmate was sentenced to federal prison on Tuesday for threatening to kill the president of the United States.

Patrick James Murray, 50, was indicted by a federal grand jury on March 22, 2012 and pled guilty to threats against the president on Sept. 3, 2014. His Tuesday sentencing will have him spend 40 months in federal prison.

Murray had made threats against a U.S. district judge, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado said. In a Feb. 3, 2012 letter to that judge, Murray said he no longer intended to kill the judge, but instead planned to kill the president.

A Secret Service agent met with Murray on Feb. 5, during which time Murray admitted to writing and mailing the letter, saying that he intended to kill the president once he got out of jail. After speaking with the agent, the U.S. attorney says that Murray mailed two more letters to the same U.S. district judge — one addressed to the president expressing an intent to assassinate him, and one to the judge asking that the first letter be forwarded to the president.

“As today’s prison sentence demonstrates,” U.S. Attorney John Walsh said in a statement, “threats against any public official, and especially a threat against the President of the United States, are serious crimes.”

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