Guilty plea from Mercer County man accused of threatening to kill Bluefield mayor, former U.S. attorney

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A Mercer County man faces between five and ten years in prison when he’s sentenced in October for mailing letters to the former U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District and the mayor of Bluefield in which he threatened to kill the two.

Kenneth Robert Godsey, 35, of Bluefield, was in federal court in Abingdon, Virginia on Friday to enter guilty pleas to two counts of mailing a threatening communication.

In May 2015, Godsey sent a letter from the Southwest Valley Regional Jail in Tazewell, Virginia, where he was being held, to the Charleston office of then-U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. The letter included numerous references to murder, federal officials said.

In July 2015, investigators said Godsey sent a letter to Bluefield Mayor Tom Cole in which he claimed that he would kill Cole and have others kill additional citizens of Bluefield.

The FBI, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Tazewell County, Virginia Sheriff’s Department and West Virginia State Police were part of the investigation.

The plea agreement requires approval from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

Godsey’s sentencing date was scheduled for Oct. 24, 2016.





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