Richard Lee Wade Sentenced To 60 Months For Sending Threatening Letters Through The Mail

Memphis, TN – Richard Lee Wade, 50, of Roanoke, VA, was sentenced today to 60 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge John T. Fowlkes for sending threatening communications through the mail to a pair of Memphis-area women, announced U.S. Attorney Edward L. Stanton III.

“Brazen conduct such as Wade’s repeatedly stalking and terrorizing of innocent women and their families will simply not be tolerated,” said U.S. Attorney Stanton. “The sentence imposed today by the court should serve as a clear reminder to individuals who stalk, threaten and intimidate victims as Wade did by using the U.S. Postal Service that they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and will ultimately suffer the severe consequences of federal imprisonment.”

On May 5, 2012, Wade was indicted on nine counts of sending threatening letters. In these letters, Wade made repeated threats to inflict serious injury upon the women, including torturing and killing them and threatening to have someone else track them down and kill them. In one of the letters, read during his plea hearing, Wade made the threat, “I will not stop until one of us in our grave.”

Wade pleaded guilty to two of the nine counts on November 6, 2012. Following the completion of his prison term, Judge Fowlkes ordered him to serve three years of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal prison system.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Collierville Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lorraine Craig represented the government.