Eastern Ky. man threatened to shoot judge ‘between the eyes’ in letter, investigators say

A Wheelright man has been indicted for allegedly sending a threatening letter to a federal courthouse saying he wanted to shoot a U.S. judge “between the eyes” with a .38 Special handgun.

On Thursday, a grand jury indicted 49-year-old Jerome Franklin for a charge of mailing threatening communications after he sent a letter to the Lexington federal courthouse addressed to a clerk and threatening to harm a judge, according to court documents.

“I want to personally, shoot your Judge right between the eyes with a .38 special,” the handwritten note from February said, according to court documents.

Franklin is alleged to have sent other threatening messages to law enforcement through a tablet at a Christian County jail a month earlier.

A probation and parole officer told Kentucky State Police in January she received messages from an inmate saying he wanted to kill the officer, other law enforcement, a judge and “shoot up a school or church,” according to court documents.

The electronic messages came from another inmate’s jail account. When investigators arrived at the jail, they questioned the account holder, who said he had no idea of the messages, and had not given anyone access to his account.

Through surveillance footage and interviews, state police were able to figure out Franklin used the tablet under the other inmate’s account. Franklin is alleged to have sent messages to the other inmate’s mother asking for money. Franklin later admitted to sending the messages, court documents say.

In addition to his federal charge, Franklin faces state charges of second-degree terroristic threatening, unlawful access to a computer, identity theft, third-degree terroristic threatening, and intimidating a participant in the legal process, according to court documents. A motion has been made to revoke Franklin’s shock probation granted in 2021 for multiple fraud and theft charges from 2021.

If convicted in the federal case, Franklin faces an additional 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and five years supervised release.

Taylor Six

Lexington Herald-Leader

Taylor Six is the criminal justice reporter at the Herald-Leader. She was born and raised in Lexington attending Lafayette High School. She graduated from Eastern Kentucky University in 2018 with a degree in journalism. She previously worked as the government reporter for the Richmond Register.