Inmate gets more time in prison for threats to kill judge

A man who was already in prison for assault had more than six years added to his time Tuesday for writing threatening letters to an Allegheny County Common Pleas judge and for throwing urine on a jail officer.

Nathan Hoye, 26, who had been at the State Correctional Institution Greene when he sent the first letters, pleaded guilty before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning in May to multiple counts of both terroristic threats and harassment, as well as stalking.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and assault by a prisoner.

On Tuesday, Judge Manning ordered Hoye to serve 80 to 160 months in state prison.

According to the prosecution, Hoye was a defendant before Judge Beth A. Lazzara in 2012 and 2015 on charges of assault, conspiracy, access device fraud, identity theft, forgery and fraud. After his conviction, she ordered him in May 2015 to serve 16 to 32 months in prison.

About a year later, on May 4, 2016, Judge Lazzara received five letters from Hoye — all sent from prison. The first one, dated April 29, 2016, according to the criminal complaint, did not contain any threatening language. But the second, dated two days later, did.

In it, Hoye wrote, “I hope you die, and I will kill you and your family.”

The other letters threatened to shoot the judge Downtown.

Even after Hoye was confronted and charged, according to the criminal complaint, he sent four additional letters to Judge Lazzara in early 2017.

In one, he wrote, “I will kill you [ expletive] since you don’t want me home early on parole.”

In another, he threatened to shoot her and her family.

His two later letters in 2017 acknowledged his previous threats. In them, he apologized and asked for parole.

On Tuesday, Judge Lazzara appeared at Hoye’s sentencing hearing to give a victim impact statement.

“Judges are the most visible signs of the rule of law in our system,” she said. “For someone to threaten the judge, the judge’s family, the judge’s staff — that is an action that strikes at the very heart of our judicial system.”

She said that because of Hoye’s letters, her husband upgraded the family’s homesecurity system.

Judge Lazzara explained that she tried to give Hoye a chance by allowing his earlier case to be heard in the mental health court over which she presides.

“He did nothing to try to improve his condition whatsoever,” she said.

Defense attorney Richard Narvin asked Judge Manning to consider allowing his client, incarcerated since 2013, to be released to a group home, where he could learn independent living skills and receive mental health treatment. He has been diagnosed with post- traumatic stress disorder and anti- social personality disorder.

Mr. Narvin asked that his client be given a chance outside of prison but still with supervision.

“Hasn’t that happened already?” Judge Manning asked. “And then he continued and continued and continued.”

When it was his turn to speak, Hoye apologized.

“I didn’t mean any harm,” he said.

But Deputy District Attorney Brian Catanzarite called Hoye dangerous and said putting him in a group home does not provide for safety.

“He had a chance through mental health court to put the work in to address his mental health needs,” the prosecutor said. “He refused to do that.”