Inmate sentenced for mail threats

BANGOR – The man who torched the Skowhegan State Fairgrounds nearly eight years ago was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to eight years in prison for threatening to kill two presidents, a governor, a federal judge and other public officials in threatening letters penned over a four-year period.

Charles D. Miles, 26, pleaded guilty last year to 11 counts, including three counts of making threats and eight counts of mailing threatening communications.

Miles, who is being held at Maine State Prison in Warren, faced up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Under the federal sentencing guidelines, he faced between 6 1/2 and eight years in prison.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock also sentenced Miles to three years of supervised release after he completes his federal prison term.

“What you did in making these threats is serious business,” Woodcock told Miles in handing down the sentence. “These threats are direct, vulgar and threatened extreme violence. … They have a right to do their jobs to the best of their abilities without threat of personal violence.”

Miles also has been indicted in Knox County on two counts of aggravated assault for alleged incidents at the prison. Those cases are expected to be resolved within the next two weeks before Miles is moved from Maine to a federal facility.

Seven years ago, Miles was committed to the former Augusta Mental Health Institute after he was found not criminally responsible for setting the March 1999 fire that leveled the historic grandstand and exhibition hall in Skowhegan. The fire caused $3 million in damage.

Woodcock found Miles competent to enter not guilty pleas in April 2006 after the defendant was evaluated and treated at a federal facility. At the sentencing Thursday, Woodcock urged Miles, who is taking more than half a dozen drugs to treat his mental illness, to continue his treatment when he is released.

Miles sent the first of two letters that contained threats against President Clinton in January 2000 to the federal Drug Enforcement Agency’s office in Portland. It included Miles’ name and listed his address as AMHI in Augusta, according to court documents.

A second letter addressed to the White House was intercepted before it arrived.

While the first letter threatened to “kill the President and his dope family,” the second directly threatened first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the couple’s daughter, Chelsea.

All the letters are full of misspellings, grammatical errors and profanities.

“[Y]ou will die for the problem you caused you cant stop me I see your guts all over the floor you dumb gay, …” the second letter says. “Six million ways to die Billy Boy choose one.”

Miles admitted to sending a third letter threatening Clinton to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Portland in June 2000. Two years later, he threatened to kill U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby in a letter sent to her office.

Due to that threat, Robert E. Richardson, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts based in Boston, prosecuted the case. He urged the judge Thursday to sentence Miles to eight years, the maximum allowed under the sentencing guidelines.

Miles was sentenced to serve a year at Maine State Prison after he escaped from AMHI on Dec. 25, 2003. He was to have been released and returned to the Riverview Psychiatric Center, formerly AMHI, in January 2005, the same month he first was indicted by a federal grand jury in Bangor for the threats against Clinton. Six months later, he was indicted on the additional counts.

While incarcerated at Maine State Prison, Miles sent a letter that contained a white substance he said was anthrax to President Bush, according to court documents.

It was received at the White House mail facility by Sept. 17, 2004. The substance was found not to be toxic, but was not identified in court documents.

“George Bush,” the letter says. “My name is C. Miles. A.K.A. Manson, A.K.A. Zippo. Just writing to let you know im going to murder you! Im going to murder your whole family ill rape your Daughters and wife. Then ill cut them up. ill burn your body in gass. And ill enjoy it. Don’t feel bad im killing the governor of Maine to John Elias Baldacci. And his family. Your all gonna DiE. By the way heres some anthrax for you. Cant wait to see you dead.”

Miles also admitted to sending threatening letters to the governor in September and November 2004.

In addition, he pleaded guilty to threatening Bush, Baldacci and corrections officers in letters he sent during the same time period to the state corrections commissioner and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in South Portland.

In October 2004, Miles sent a threatening letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Margaret Kravchuk in Bangor. In it, he threatened to kill the judge and her family.