A Mineral Springs, Ark., man who mailed letters in 2015 threatening to hang seven Arkansas mayors if they did not meet his demands was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison Wednesday by a federal judge in Texarkana.
Maverick Dean Bryan, 56, has been behind bars for approximately 16 months and received credit for that time at a sentencing hearing Wednesday morning in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas. Following his release from federal prison, Bryan will be supervised by federal probation officials for three years and can be returned to prison if he fails to follow the law.
Handwritten letters postmarked Jan. 5, 2015, mailed to the mayors of Hope, Nashville, DeQueen, Ashdown, Lewisville, Prescott and Murfreesboro promised to hang the community leaders from trees on the courthouse lawn if they didn't put prayer and the Ten Commandments back in school and eliminate the Common Core curriculum.
At a detention hearing last year Bryan admitted in colorful testimony to penning the letters and to being the author of an advertisement that ran twice during 2015 in the Thrifty Nickel seeking a $23 million loan to raise a Christian army to overthrow the U.S. government. A confidential source who met with Bryan in response to the ad allegedly recorded Bryan stating he wants to kill all living U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter in particular.
In a search warrant affidavit, Bryan's letter is quoted as demanding that the mayors no longer honor the votes of anyone who is homosexual, Muslim, socialist, communist or atheist, or who worships any God other than Jesus Christ, and that anyone fitting those definitions be required to "exit."
As part of Bryan's plea agreement, an eighth charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm was dismissed. Bryan pleaded guilty to seven counts of mailing threatening communications in January. The 18-month terms he received on each count will be served concurrently.
Bryan was represented by Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Harris appeared for the government.