Kentucky man in prison over threat to federal officer allegedly threatened him again
A Southern Kentucky man serving nearly six years in prison for threatening a federal law enforcement agent has been charged with threatening the officer, again.
A federal grand jury indicted William H. Nantz, 65, of Whitley County on a charge of threatening to “engage in conduct that would cause bodily harm to another person.”
The intent was to retaliate against Todd Tremaine, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to the indictment returned Thursday.
“Agents have an important job to enforce federal laws and protect the public,” Shawn Morrow, special agent in charge of the ATF in Kentucky, said in a statement to the Herald-Leader. “Anytime the life of an agent, or any public official, is threatened, we take that very seriously.”
Tremaine investigated Nantz’s son, Daniel Scott Nantz, who admitted to shooting and killing his pregnant girlfriend Geri D. Johnson, in 2019 to keep her from telling police about his involvement in methamphetamine trafficking.
William Nantz admitted that after hearing Tremaine testify against his son, he threatened the agent in October 2021.
Nantz told one of Tremaine’s neighbors that he had watched Tremaine’s house from a vehicle with tinted windows.
He described the house and the agent’s wife and vehicle, and said he knew the times when Tremaine’s family walked their dog, according to the court record.
Nantz also told the neighbor he had four sticks of dynamite and “that will do a lot.”
The neighbor notified authorities.
Nantz pleaded guilty. U.S. District Judge Robert E. Wier sentenced him to 70 months in prison at a hearing on Oct. 11, 2022.
The next day, Nantz made another threat to retaliate against Tremaine for attending the sentencing hearing the day before and submitting a victim impact statement, the new indictment alleges.
The indictment did not include details on the threat.
Nantz had been in custody since being arrested in November 2021, meaning he was in jail when he allegedly made the threat.
The charge against Nantz is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
Nantz sought compassionate release from prison last year based on a number of health problems, including heart disease and diabetes.
Wier denied the request, ruling that Nantz had not met the requirements to have his sentence cut short.
The judge also revisited the seriousness of Nantz’s conduct, saying threats against police officers and their families “shake the foundation of our system of laws and jeopardize the apparatus society uses to discern and prosecute crime.”
Nantz is serving his current sentence at a prison in Ohio.
Federal authorities at one point pursued the death penalty against Nantz’s son, Daniel Scott Nantz, but ultimately worked out an agreement for him to serve life in prison.
