Texan Sentenced to 30 Months in Prison for Threatening A Princeton Seminary Student via Email

NEWARK – A Texas man was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in federal prison for sending threatening email to a Princeton Seminary student, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie announced.

U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler also ordered Keenan Miller, 24, of San Antonio, to serve three years of supervised release upon the completion of his prison term. Miller has been detained since his arrest on Oct 17, 2005.

Miller pleaded guilty on Jan. 27, 2006, before Judge Chesler, to a one-count Information charging him with sending a threatening email from Texas to sending a threatening email from Texas to Princeton on July 31, 2005. At his plea hearing, Miller admitted he sent an email which contained language that could reasonably be perceived as a threat to injure to the female student. Miller admitted that he had known the student since 2002 and had repeatedly tried to contact the student after she moved from Texas to New Jersey to enroll in seminary in 2005. Miller further admitted to twice traveling from Texas to New Jersey after the student’s move.

Under the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, Miller faced a sentencing range of between 18 and 24 months in prison. However, Judge Chesler, using his discretion, went above the advisory guideline range in sentencing Miller. While imposing the sentence against Miller, Judge Chesler called the defendant’s behavior “outrageous” and “despicable” and reviewed the defendant’s “campaign to torture” the student noting that the defendant had stalked the student, threatened to solicit “perverts” to contact the student’s mother, and caused fake emails which falsely sought sexual relations, which appeared to have been sent by the student, to be sent to the student’s professors.

In determining the sentence, Judge Chesler consulted the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, which provide appropriate sentencing ranges that take into account the severity and characteristics of the offense, the defendant's criminal history, if any, and other factors. The judge, however, was not bound by those guidelines in determining a sentence.

Parole has been abolished in the federal system. Defendants who are given custodial terms must serve nearly all that time.

Christie credited Special Agents of the FBI West Trenton Resident Agency, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr., in Newark, with the investigation of the case.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugenia A.P. Cowles of the Criminal Division in Trenton.

Defense: Andrea Bergman, Esq. Asst. Federal Public Defender