Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — A Spokane jail inmate says it was just a dare — with a bag of coffee as the payoff — that led him to pen a threat to bomb a federal courthouse and kill a judge.
A prosecutor says the actual payoff will likely be three years in federal prison.
The Spokesman-Review says 42-year-old Scott J. Franklin pleaded guilty Wednesday to threatening to bomb the Spokane federal courthouse and its occupants.
Franklin told visiting U.S. District Judge Ancer Haggerty of Portland that he “was never going to do it.”
The two-page, handwritten letter from the Spokane County Jail was received on June 11. It was signed by Franklin.
The newspaper says Franklin has 16 prior felony convictions for burglary, theft and drug possession. He refused to identify the inmate who issued the dare.
Sentencing is set for Nov. 5.
The court record doesn’t reflect whether Franklin got his coffee.