Inmate Threatens Federal Judge At Sentencing

DENVER (CBS4) ― A violent white supremacist inmate -- who had planned to stab a congressman visiting a prison -- threatened to have the judge killed at his sentencing Friday.

Inmate Jay Gregory told Chief U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham "I hunger for revenge" and regrets he "will not be able to piss on your grave next to (murdered KOA talk show host) Alan Berg."

Berg was assassinated in his Congress Park driveway in 1984 by a White nationalist group called The Order.

Nottingham said Gregory, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood had admitted his goal is "to cause an uprising against the government."

The judge sentenced Gregory, 51, to 20 more years in prison, consecutive to two other 20-year prison terms he is serving for bank robberies in Utah and Montana.

A jury in February convicted him of throwing hot floor wax stripper on a guard at the high-security U.S. Penitentiary and seriously injuring him.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Judith Smith, said in court filing that Gregory admitted his goal was to then kill the guard by stabbing him.

She said he admitted his original plan was to throw hot oven cleaner on former Congressman Joel Hefley and other persons visiting the prison, and then use a broken broom handle to stab as many of them as he could.

Gregory, in the statement he read to the judge, said he regrets he was unable to carry out the plan because he was quarantined due to a outbreak of chickenpox at the time of the visit.

He called himself "a man with nothing to lose."

Gregory derided what he characterized as a lack of justice at his trial and told Nottingham, "Your concept of justice has soiled and defiled us all. You will be held accountable and retribution will be swift."

The inmate said he will arrange for someone else "to carry out what I am unable to do. I will inflict a wound on you and on the nation."

The judge did not respond directly to Gregory's harangue, but in pronouncing the sentence, Nottingham said, "There appears to be no sentence that will deter the defendant."

The inmate said he renounced his U.S. citizenship in the 1970s "and swore allegiance to the Aryan Nation." He said he did that because the government had become corrupt and had turned against white people.

"I am and still willing to break the laws of a corrupt government. It seems you no longer can be white and an American."

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Ken Deal took the unusual step of personally attending Friday's sentencing as part of extra security in the courtroom. He said, "We have a level of security that would address any issue that may arise."

Source: CBS4Denver