Adair County Man Pleads Guilty to
Mailing Threatening Communications
St. Louis, Missouri: Lonnie Sutton pled
guilty to three charges of mailing threatening letters,
United
States Attorney Catherine L. Hanaway and Adair County
Prosecuting Attorney Mark Williams announced today.
“I would like to commend the cooperative efforts
of Prosecuting Attorney Williams, the Kirksville Police
Department, the Kirksville office of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation, and the Postal Inspection Service
for their investigation of this case,” said Hanaway. “Even
though Mr. Sutton claims that he never intended to
harm anyone, threats to harm our citizens will be investigated
and prosecuted by this office.”
On January 28, 2003, Sutton sent a letter threatening
to harm school children on a school bus; on April 6,
2006, Sutton mailed a letter to the Kirksville Police
Department containing a threat to kill several members
of the Kirksville Police Department; and in October
2006, Sutton mailed a letter to an Associate Circuit
Court Judge threatening to destroy her.
Kirksville police officers and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation began the investigation in January
2003 and almost immediately focused on Lonnie Sutton.
They questioned Mr. Sutton on a number of occasions,
but Mr. Sutton denied any involvement. They began examining
the letters for handwriting comparison and fingerprints
and obtained Sutton’s fingerprints and handwriting
exemplars. The handwriting exemplars did not match,
but the fingerprints on several of the mailed letters
did. On October 2, 2007, Sutton took a polygraph test
and failed. On October 15, 2007, Sutton voluntarily
went to FBI offices and, in a written confession, admitted
sending the threatening letters but denied that he
intended to harm anyone.
LONNIE SUTTON, Kirksville, Missouri, pled guilty to
three felony counts of mailing threatening communications.
He appeared before United States District Judge Donald
J. Stohr this morning in St. Louis.
Sutton now faces a maximum penalty of five years in
prison and/or fines up to $250,000, on each count.
Sentencing has been set for September 5, 2008.
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