Man gets five years in federal prison for threatening prosecutor
A Brewton man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for threatening a prosecutor.
Terry Holmes, 54, was sentenced to 60 months in prison after Holmes pleaded guilty to mailing a threatening communication, said Kevin Davidson, acting United States attorney for the Middle District of Alabama. The sentence, the maximum allowed under the federal statute, will run consecutively to the state prison term Holmes is currently serving with the Alabama Department of Corrections on unrelated charges.
There is no parole in the federal system. In addition to the prison sentence, Holmes was ordered to pay $26,185.70 in restitution.
'No one who serves the cause of justice, or the families of those who serve, should ever be threatened for doing their job,' said Davidson. 'Our system depends on the courage of prosecutors, judges and law enforcement officers. Threats against them are attacks on the rule of law itself and cannot be tolerated.'
According to court documents and Holmes's plea agreement, the threat arose after a man that Holmes claimed to know was convicted of capital murder for the killing of a police officer. On March 19, 2024, Holmes, who was an inmate serving a state prison sentence, sent a letter to the Mobile County District Attorney's Office, which prosecuted the capital murder case.
The letter began, 'I am personally writing you to inform you we know where you live,' and went on to identify Holmes as a member of a known white supremacist group. Holmes threatened that the district attorney, the district attorney's family and the judge involved in the case would suffer 'a very horrible and painful death' in retaliation for the conviction and the pursuit of the death penalty against his alleged associate.
More: New DOGE update removes four Alabama federal buildings from Wall of Receipts. What to know
On March 22, 2024, agents interviewed Holmes. During the interview, Holmes admitted to writing the letter and said he had associates watching the district attorney, warning that the prosecutor had only hours to live. Security precautions had already been taken to protect the district attorney and his family. Holmes pleaded guilty to mailing the threatening communication on January 28.
'There is no place in our justice system for threats of violence – especially leveled at officers of the court,' said FBI acting special agent in charge Timothy J. O'Malley. 'The FBI is committed to ensuring those who serve justice can do so without fear and will hold offenders accountable.'
The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Mobile Field Office investigated this case, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service and the Mobile County Sheriff's Office.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at mroney@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Man gets five years in federal prison for threatening prosecutor
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