A federal judge in Boston sentenced Devin James Melycher to three years in prison on Nov. 3 for mailing threatening letters to a clerk at the city’s federal courthouse. The court also imposed three years of supervised release after prison. Melycher, who grew up in Connecticut, is already serving a 12-year federal sentence, according to The Boston Globe.
The case involved three letters mailed to a clerk at the John J. Moakley U.S. Courthouse on Dec. 16, 2022, Jan. 3, 2023, and Jan. 12, 2023, according to The Boston Globe. Court documents cited by the paper say the return envelopes bore Melycher’s name and an address at the Androscoggin County Jail in Maine, where he was being held. One letter stated, “I won’t ever stop hunting you all down.”
Grand Jury Indictment and Guilty Plea
A federal grand jury in Boston indicted Melycher in May 2024 on three counts of mailing threatening communications. He pleaded guilty in May 2026. Prosecutors sought a three-year sentence under the plea agreement; prosecutor Luke A. Goldworm said it would reflect the seriousness of the offense and the broader goals of sentencing, The Globe reported.
The new term will run concurrently with the 12-year sentence Melycher is already serving. He has been in federal prison since 2023, and his release date is scheduled for June 12, 2032, according to Bureau of Prisons information reported by The Globe.
How concurrent sentences work
Under 18 U.S.C. § 3584(a), prison terms imposed at different times generally run consecutively unless a court orders them to run concurrently; the law also allows a court to order concurrent or consecutive terms when a person already has an uncompleted prison term, according to the U.S. Code. Concurrent terms are served at the same time rather than one after another. Separately, the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ 2023 annual report says U.S. Marshals Service figures recorded 926 threats and inappropriate communications against federal judges and other court personnel in 2015, compared with 2,710 in 2023. The report presents these as aggregate totals for threats and inappropriate communications against federal judges and other court personnel.
Underlying Sentences and Other Threatening Letters
Melycher is serving 11 years of that 12-year term for traveling more than 200 miles, from Brookfield, Connecticut, to Gorham, Maine, in 2020 to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he met online, as reported by The Boston Globe. The remaining time comes from an earlier case in which he sent more than 100 threatening letters to Judge John Woodcock, attorney David Beneman, prosecutor Noah Falk, and investigator Eric Tracy, for which he received an additional 18-month sentence; that sentence is set to be served after he completes the 11-year term, as noted by Bangor Daily News.
Melycher’s attorney, Cara McNamara, told the court he accepted responsibility and had no excuse for sending the letters. She said his mental health was at its most unstable when he wrote them and argued that treatment, rather than a lengthy additional prison term, was needed, The Globe reported.
A Troubled Path Before Prison
The Globe reported that Melycher suffered a concussion playing high school football, later left school as his grades declined and he became socially withdrawn, and began experimenting with drugs after his grandmother died. He completed outpatient substance-abuse treatment at age 20.
