An Arkansas man who mailed threatening letters to seven mayors in 2015 was sentenced Wednesday to 18 months in federal prison.
Maverick Dean Bryan, 56, sent handwritten letters to mayors in Hope, Nashville, De Queen, Ashdown, Lewisville, Prescott and Murfreesboro indicating he would hang the leaders from trees unless prayer was re-established in schools and Common Core abolished, the Texarkana Gazette reported.
The letters said they were written by a second lieutenant with the "First Christian Militia of the United States of America" and also demanded that "only Christians be allowed to vote in any matter pertaining to the particular county," according to Bryan's plea agreement.
"Each letter closed by informing the mayor that if the demands were not met that he would be hung," U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas Kenneth Elser wrote.
Bryan, who admitted in a detention hearing in 2016 that he wrote the letters, pleaded guilty in January to seven counts of mailing threatening communications. He has already served about 16 months in jail.
At an earlier hearing, Bryan also admitted he placed an ad in a local publication seeking a $23 million loan to create a Christian army he wanted to overthrow the U.S. government, The Gazette noted.
Click here to read the full story in the Texarkana Gazette and read Friday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.