Man at center of free speech case gets 12.5 years in prison
A Freemansburg man who won a 2015 Supreme Court appeal of his sentence for social media threats was sentenced to 12½ years in federal prison for stalking a prosecutor in that case as well as his ex-wife and former girlfriend.
Anthony Elonis, 39, was indicted by a grand jury in July 2021 and found guilty last August of three counts of cyberstalking in U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania.
He was sentenced in Easton on Thursday by Judge Edward G. Smith.
Elonis sent harassing emails to a federal prosecutor, violated a protection from abuse order by texting and calling his ex-girlfriend, repeatedly left voicemails on his ex-wife’s phone and frequently posted about her on social media.
In the bulk of the communications, Elonis would include references to Adam Lanza, who killed 26 people in a 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.
The matter was specially assigned to the United States Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Pennsylvania for prosecution.
Elonis was convicted in 2011 of five counts of interstate communication of threats after threatening his then-estranged wife, law enforcement officials and kindergarten children in a series of graphic Facebook posts.
He argued the posts were rap lyrics and protected by free speech.
The conviction was sent back to a lower court by the U.S. Supreme Court in a 2015 ruling that argued the jury was erroneously instructed and should have weighed Elonis’ intent in making the posts and not just their content.
The conviction, however, was upheld in 2016 by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.
It said no jury could doubt Elonis knew the lyrics — which included talk of killing his estranged wife, shooting up a school and cutting an FBI agent’s throat — would intimidate his targets, despite appearing under an “entertainment only” disclaimer.
Elonis served 44 months in federal custody from his arrest in 2010 until his release in February 2014.
While he was in prison, he started sending letters to a prosecutor involved in the case. The first letter included a threat to “set fire to a cross” in the prosecutor’s front yard. The next letter included, “You may have won the battle but you’ll never stop me from wearing my I am Adam (Lanza) T-shirt in public.”
Elonis harassed his ex-girlfriend through text messages, calls and voicemails despite a protection from abuse order. After he was found guilty of violating the order, he posted a sexually explicit picture of the woman on Twitter.
Elonis continued to harass her and was found guilty of violating the order again, but continued to post on Twitter about her, including a photo of her pregnant in a grocery store.
Elonis’ ex-wife, with whom he has two children, testified against him while he was on trial for the felony threats, after which he was found guilty of threatening to kill and injure her.