Inmate who threatened to kill Obama, others to be sentenced

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A federal prisoner who threatened to kill President Barack Obama and others while an inmate at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center could get up to 45 years in prison and be fined up to $1.25 million when a federal judge in Pittsburgh sentences him at 10:30 a.m. May 26.

Phillip C. Clayton, 35, pleaded guilty last week before U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone to mailing the threatening letters in January from NOCC on Hubbard Road to the federal court clerk in Youngstown.

The letters contained death threats against the president, the court clerk, a federal judge, the warden and corrections officers at NOCC, the Allegheny County jail warden in Pittsburgh, and a Cambria County, Pa., common pleas judge.

The U.S. Marshals Service and Secret Service investigated the case, which is being prosecuted by John J. Valkovci Jr., an assistant U.S. attorney.