An Ohio prison inmate already convicted of rape and kidnapping pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to threatening to kill a Florida Judge and sexually assault the Judge's wife and daughter.
Inside the courtroom at his plea hearing, Wayne A. Miller, 41, of Alliance, Ohio, sat slumped in shackles with prominent tattoos across his throat visible at the defense table near his public defender.
Miller told U.S. District Judge Allen C. Winsor, who was not the subject of the threat, that another inmate he identified only as "the guy" paid him to send a threatening letter about elected Alachua County Chief Circuit Judge Mark W. Moseley and Moseley's family.
The explanation was so suspect that neither the Judge nor federal prosecutor Andrew Grogen pressed Miller about the other inmate's identity. Winsor said Miller had bragged to other inmates about threatening Judges and wanting to accrue additional criminal charges in other states, including Florida.
The federal public defender handling the case, Darren James, declined to answer questions from a reporter after the hearing.
Winsor told Miller he faces up to 40 years in federal prison. He also faces roughly $1 million in fines and up to 12 years of supervised release after he would serve his prison term. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 3.
In a similar but unrelated case earlier this year, a federal Judge in Orlando sentenced a Florida inmate to just over three years in prison plus three years of supervised release for mailing a letter in 2021 threatening to murder a senior federal Judge in Jacksonville and his wife.
Judges across the country have wrestled with increased threats against them in recent years, according to figures from the U.S. Marshals Service. Among federal Judges alone, authorities reported 457 credible threats last year, nearly three times as many as in 2019.
In July 2020, a disgruntled lawyer shot and killed the 20-year-old son and wounded the husband of U.S. District Judge Esther Salas in New Jersey at the family's home. Salas said the gunman, who killed himself after the attacks, also had been targeting Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
Miller described in court a history of psychiatric ailments, although a doctor appointed by the Judge declared him competent last month to proceed with his criminal trial. He said in court he was 42, but his age in court records was listed as 41.
Miller wrote the threat in a letter in November 2022 to the Sheriff in Alachua County, according to court records. Moseley was not identified as Miller's target in the federal indictment, which referred only to a "Florida state court judge," but Moseley was specified as the prospective victim during the court hearing.
There was no obvious connection between Miller, who grew up in Ohio, and the Judge or northern Florida. Moseley, 66, declined through a court spokeswoman Wednesday to discuss the case. Moseley became Chief State Judge in Gainesville in January 2021 and ran unopposed during his last re-election in 2022. It wasn't immediately clear whether Moseley actually has a daughter.
Miller was convicted of rape and kidnapping in Ohio in 2007 and served eight years in prison there. Just nine days after he was released, he abducted an Ohio State University dentistry resident from campus at knifepoint and robbed her in woods where he was camping because he was homeless. A Judge sentenced Miller in 2016 to 21 years in prison in that case, calling him "just a violent person" and saying his choices in life "just defy logic and description."
Miller was imprisoned in the maximum-security Southern Ohio Correctional Facility outside Lucasville when he said he sent the threatening letter to the Sheriff's Office in Florida.
Winsor in court said that Miller told FBI agents that he "wished to cause harm to this Judge if released."
Miller also pleaded guilty Wednesday to attacking a prison nurse with a plastic shiv after he was transferred to a detention center in Tallahassee to face charges over the Judge's threat. Miller said he didn't remember the incident but saw images from surveillance video of what happened and accepted responsibility.
Miller said he experiences flashes of images from the day of the assault, and said the next thing he remembers was crying, hurting and being placed in a protective cell. Miller said another inmate gave him the weapon after he arrived in Florida.
Miller said he's been in the prison system since he was 11 or 12 and in and out of foster care his entire life. He said he has a high school diploma.
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This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at vivienneserret@ufl.edu.
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