Inmate Sentenced to 55 Months in Federal Prison for Mailing Threats to Law Enforcement
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 17, 2014 |
DALLAS—Jesse Brister, aka “Bozo,” was sentenced this morning by Chief U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater to 55 months in federal prison following his guilty plea in September 2013 to one count of mailing threatening communications. Brister, 28, of Conroe, Texas, is presently in custody in the Texas prison system in an unrelated case. The announcement was made today by U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
According to documents filed in the case, Brister has identified himself as a proud member of the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas (ABT); Texas prison officials also list him as a member of that security threat group. In March 2013, Brister was incarcerated in the Telford Unit in New Boston, Texas.
On March 21, 2013, Brister wrote and signed a letter addressed to the U.S. Attorney in the Earle Cabell Federal Building in Dallas. In this letter, Brister wrote, among other things, that
“[p]roudly, I am writing this letter to this Federal Building and...but I am intending it to the Federal Department point blank. Our demands are simple; you have apprehended members of our family; Big Terry, Jive, Baby Huey, and others in our Dallas/Ft. Worth region....If your federal government does not drop the current charges on these ABT members my circle/family will start with DA’s not involved in these cases....We have a list of names Judges included.”
At the time of this letter, there was a racketeering indictment pending in the Southern District of Texas against the ABT and its leaders and soldiers. All the ABT members mentioned above in Brister’s letter were under federal indictment in Houston. In a second letter Brister sent to the U.S. Attorney’s Office dated March 28, 2013, Brister urged law enforcement officers to make a peace treaty with the ABT because, “trust me its not fun having to search the DA’s, U.S. Attorneys, Judges, and so on and so forth vehicles everyday for bombs....”
Approximately 10 days after Brister wrote his first letter, Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife were gunned down in their home in what appeared to be a well-orchestrated assassination.
Brister was interviewed by federal and state law enforcement officers regarding this letter and others he sent. He admitted to writing these letters, and although he initially claimed otherwise, he ultimately denied any involvement of the ABT in any of the Kaufman County murders. (Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse had been murdered earlier in 2013.)
The investigation into these threats was conducted by the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Rangers (Texas Department of Public Safety), the FBI, and other local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Criminal Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham prosecuted.