Published: November 18, 2009 11:25 pm      

Inmate facing charges

Former Meyersdale resident is accused of making threats

JOHNSTOWN — A prisoner has been charged with mailing a menacing communication – a signed letter that threatened to “place explosives around fed. bldg., (and) blow it sky high like others have in past times.’’

Phillip C. Clayton, 35, formerly of Meyersdale, was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in Johnstown. He is serving a three-year sentence at the medium-security federal prison in Victorville, Calif., for failure to register as a sex offender.

The letter dated June 4 was sent to U.S. District Court in Johnstown and also threatened the lives of those involved in his then-pending case over failure to register: U.S. District Judge Kim Gibson, and employees of the Federal Public Defender’s Office. He also said he would take the life of President Barack Obama.

Clayton – originally from San Bernardino, Calif. – was later sentenced by Gibson for failure to register. He also is alleged to have threatened Elisa Long, a federal public defender in Pittsburgh, and Richard Villa, an investigator for the federal Public Defender’s Office in Johnstown.

Clayton – in a rambling, four-page letter that also refers to his schizophrenia – said of Judge Gibson, “I’ll cause him to wreck his car and he will die.’’

Clayton reportedly wrote that he will kill Villa and his family “and burn their bodies in the Ohio River.’’

He contended that his defense attorneys sat on five boxes of evidence detailing his mental illnesses from 1994 through 2008. Clayton contended he was in a state hospital in California from 10 until 17 years of age.

According to a Megan’s law Web site, Clayton was convicted of performing oral sex on an unconscious victim in California. The 6-foot-1-inch, 200-pound Clayton arrived at the Victorville prison last month from Pennsylvania and was described as having four tattoos, all on his left arm.

Clayton was at a residence on Broadway Street, Meyersdale, when he was arrested for a parole violation in December 2007. A bench warrant had been issued after he failed to appear for an extradition hearing days earlier in Somerset County Court.

State police said that while transporting Clayton, he kicked out the right rear passenger side window of the patrol car.

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons said Clayton has a projected release date from Victorville of June 2011. He faces 10 years supervised release afterward.

All that doesn’t include any penalties he will receive if convicted in the latest threatening communications case. A trial date has not been set.

The felony threat case was presented to a federal grand jury by Assistant U.S. Attorney John Valkovci Jr. The U.S. Marshals Service and the Secret Service conducted the investigation.