A Colorado inmate who wrote letters threatening to kill former President Barack Obama by blowing up the White House and shoot a federal judge in the head was sentenced Monday to 46 months in a federal prison.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Marcia Krieger also sentenced Michael Francis Clapper, 27, to three years of supervised release following his prison term.
Clapper wrote the threatening letters in the summer of 2015 while he was serving arson, auto theft and menacing convictions in the Colorado State Penitentiary, according to court records.
Krieger said that Clapper will serve one year of his federal sentence concurrently — or at the same time — with his state incarceration and 34 months consecutively — or after completing the state sentence. Clapper’s mandatory release date from state prison will be in November of 2020.
Clapper mailed five threatening letters to federal court in Denver from June to September of 2015, according to district court records. After he mailed the first letters, a U.S. Secret Service agent spoke with him at Colorado State Penitentiary about the threats and Clapper confirmed he was serious about the threats, which he intended to carry out following his prison release.
According to district court records, on Sept. 10, 2015, Clapper followed up by writing a letter threatening to shoot Senior U.S. District Judge Lewis Babcock in the head and then “blow the court house up. And the president will get his (too). (I’m) going to blow the White House up. You guys take me as a Joke. Cool. I will show you I’m not (joking). Boom boom [expletive] and I’m going to kill the agent that took me as a (joke.)”
On the letter he drew a stick figure shooting two other stick figures, while a third stick figure lay on the ground. The judge and president were standing and Clapper was the one with the gun.
Clapper wore a green prison jumpsuit to the sentencing Monday morning. He frequently bowed his head and appeared to be staring at the podium as he stood before Krieger.
“I know what I did was wrong. Forty-six months is kind of a lot for a random letter I wrote for no reason,” Clapper said.
His attorney, Robert Pepin, said the five letters he wrote were impulsive acts, mere scribbles on paper. But he added that Clapper is mentally ill, had an abusive childhood and made the threats while he was in prison and could not carry them out.
“He’s really a damaged young man,” said Pepin, who recommended that his client get a sentence of one year and one day in prison.
Krieger said that the crime Clapper committed was making the threats and had nothing to do with whether he could carry them out.
“I am convinced that these are not mere scribbles on a paper… Our society rests on the rule of law and the protection of those who serve the public,” Krieger said.
