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Joshua Keziah

A state prison inmate has earned himself more time behind bars by mailing a death threat to a Lancaster County judge.



U.S. Middle District Judge Malachi E. Mannion sentenced Joshua Keziah, 28, to 14 months in federal prison on Tuesday, two months after the Brownstone man pleaded guilty to sending the threatening letter to former county President Judge Joseph Madenspacher.



Keziah, an inmate in the state prison at Frackville, admitted his action was "stupid" in a far more civil letter to Mannion, court filings show.



U.S. Attorney Bruce D. Brandler said Keziah's arrest stemmed from an investigation by Lancaster police and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.



The case is a bit odd because Madenspacher didn't send Keziah to state prison. Keziah is serving a 3- to 7-year sentence that was imposed by another Lancaster County judge in a 2010 kidnapping case.



According to his federal indictment, the letter Keziah sent to Madenspacher in October 2015 stated, "I'm going to find you and I'm going to kill you for the damage you've done."



A hand-written letter Keziah sent to Mannion after his arrest was considerably more contrite. "I'm sorry and regret to a point of no return writing the threatening letter that I did to Judge Madenspacher," Keziah wrote. "I had no intentions of causing Judge Madenspacher any harm."



"Honestly...I was just looking for help," he added. "Yet I caused even more problems."



