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A Connecticut man who threatened to kill a Maine judge presiding over his child sexual abuse case has been indicted for threatening more court officials.
A federal grand jury on Thursday handed down the indictment against 31-year-old Devin James Melycher for three counts of mailing threatening communications, according to court documents.
Melycher allegedly sent letters threatening to harm an employee of the John Joseph Meakley United States Courthouse in Boston on Dec. 16, 2022; Jan 3, 2023; and Jan. 12, 2023.
Melycher, who has been incarcerated at FCI Danbury in Connecticut since 2023, faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and up to a $250,000 fine on each count, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
That comes after Melycher pleaded guilty in November 2022 to sending more than 100 threatening letters to U.S. District Court Judge John Woodcock, a federal public defender, assistant U.S. attorney, U.S Department of Homeland Security agent and other officials involved in a child sexual abuse case against him in Maine.
Melycher mailed those letters between May and August of that year as that case was pending. They became more threatening after he pleaded guilty on June 1, 2022, to sexually exploiting a young Maine girl.
In one letter to Woodcock, he wrote: “I swear to god you better f——— kill me Woodcock. I’m going to f——— murder you one day and you deserve it.” In other letters, Melycher told him to “go hang himself.”
Melycher was indicted in September 2022 on three counts of mailing threatening communications, two counts of threatening to murder a federal judge and one count of threatening to murder a federal law enforcement officer.
After the case on those counts was transferred to U.S. District Court in New Hampshire, federal prosecutors said that Melycher continued to make threats against those handling his case.
In December 2022, he received an 18-month sentence for the threatening letters, to be served after completing an 11-year sentence, handed down in September 2022, in the child sexual exploitation case. He also will serve 10 years of supervised release after completing that sentence.
In that case, Melycher pleaded guilty to traveling from Connecticut to Gorham to pay a 13-year-old girl $85 to have sex with him. That came after weeks of communicating with her over Snapchat and other platforms during which he pressured her to send him sexually explicit photos.
He was arrested on Aug. 2, 2021, at his Connecticut home.
Melycher will appear in court at a later date on these new charges.
