Anti-abortion zealot who pledged to 'kill the killers' changes tune for judge Puyallup man: 'I feel utterly ashamed that I've brought fear to the lives of others'

In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015, is the offices of StemExpress, in Placerville, Calif. StemExpress is a broker in human tissue, which includes the fetal tissue that is at the heart of the Planned Parenthood video controversy.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) less In this photo taken Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015, is the offices of StemExpress, in Placerville, Calif. StemExpress is a broker in human tissue, which includes the fetal tissue that is at the heart of the Planned ... more Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Anti-abortion zealot who pledged to 'kill the killers' changes tune for judge 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

A Puyallup man convicted of threatening to kill workers at a medical services provider he believed to be dealing in fetal tissue has been sentenced to a year in prison.

An anti-abortion radical at the time, Scott A. Orton offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could beat him to killing one of the women working at a California biomedical supply company pilloried by opponents of Planned Parenthood. Orton posted threatening comments on a Fox News website after the network aired video taken by anti-choice activists.

Federal prosecutors noted that Orton, 57, had been making threats for years. After his July 2015 threats, though, staff at the California firm feared they would be killed by Orton or someone inspired by his words.

Hoping to avoid the prison sentence he received Tuesday, Orton apologized for the threats he made against StemExpress CEO Cate Dyer and FBI agents, and said he is now pro-choice.

“I feel utterly ashamed that I’ve brought fear to the lives of others,” Orton said in a letter to the court.

Orton, a socially isolated self-employed home inspector, joined Fox Nation in 2012. By the time he was arrested, he had posted tens of thousands of comments on the site’s articles.

Executives with StemExpress LLC were called before Congress during a Republican-led investigation aimed at Planned Parenthood. GOP leaders had hoped to defund Planned Parenthood, which provided a small amount of fetal tissue to StemExpress.

On July 16, 2015, Orton penned a series of threatening comments on a story related to sting videos targeting StemExpress.

“Kill StemExpress employees,” Orton wrote. “I’ll pay you for it.”

“Stop the death of innocents. Kill the killers.”

Orton went on to claim he was headed to Placerville, California, presumably to kill StemExpress workers at the company’s headquarters there.

Defense attorney Summer McKeivier would later claim her client was incensed by the surreptitiously recorded videos, which were edited to make it appear as though Planned Parrenthood was selling tissue recovered following abortions. Fox News, she said, was his window to the world.

“He found himself lonely, short-tempered and angry,” McKeivier said in court papers. “His only connection to the outside world was through the internet; his only human interaction through message boards.”

FBI agents contacted Orton in November after identifying him as the posts’ author. Orton explained to the agents that he uses “words that have a lot of meaning … so they would cut like a knife.”

“I’m a wordsmith,” Orton told the agents at his Puyallup home. “That’s what I do.”

Orton previously threatened the Puyallup City Council – “I loathe your deeds,” he wrote in 2009 – and the staff of The News Tribune.

“Bubba is extremely angry,” he told the Tacoma newspaper. “We can do nothing to stop Bubba and the clock is ticking.”

Now apologetic, Orton also threatened prior to his arrest that he would behead the FBI agents investigating him. The agents, he said on posts on Fox Nation, should be “hung from overpasses” and “executed in the streets.”

Orton pleaded guilty in April to a single count of making interstate threats. Prosecutors had asked that he be sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Dyer, the StemExpress CEO targeted by Orton, ultimately spent $156,000 on private security due to Orton’s threats. Prosecutors argue Orton should repay her expenses.

Through his attorney, Orton argued that a year of house arrest would be sufficient punishment for his crime. Now a convicted felon, Orton recanted his opposition to abortion while asking for leniency.

“I believe that a woman has the right to choose, and that providers have the right to provide abortions,” Orton said in his letter to the court. “I support the use of fetal tissue for research. …

“My behavior on that day is repugnant and shameful to me, and does not reflect my position.”

Orton was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge John Mendez at the Sacramento federal courthouse. He is presently free and is expected to surrender to Bureau of Prisons officials by Dec. 6.

Seattlepi.com reporter Levi Pulkkinen can be reached at 206-448-8348 or levipulkkinen@seattlepi.com. Follow Levi on Twitter at twitter.com/levipulk.