Man Sentenced for Threatening CBS3’s Kate Bilo
A Lansdowne man who threatened over Twitter to rape a television meteorologist and kill her and her child was sentenced Tuesday to five years in federal prison.
Justin Vernot, 30, made the threats against CBS3’s Kate Bilo through the Twitter account @ColdDeadEyes in February 2012, telling her that he knew her routine, was coming for her, and planned to kill her in front of her son.
The chilling messages were noted by U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond when he handed down a sentence that topped both federal guidelines and the term requested by the prosecutor. Diamond said Vernot “intended to inflict severe distress” on those families and Bilo, rejecting the defense’s argument that Vernot’s actions were partially the product of a brain injury sustained during a drug-induced blackout.
