By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A rural Chehalis man who planted a home-made bomb in his own mailbox as part of a scheme to make money acting as a private investigator was sentenced today to eight years in federal prison.
Kevin W. Williams, 45, was convicted by a jury last September of nine felony charges, including extortion, wire fraud, possession of unregistered firearms (pipe bomb and zip gun), making a false official statement and destruction of a letter box, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The out of work logger was trying to gain credibility for his claims he had key information about a $90 million Ponzi scheme under investigation in Atlanta, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Emily Langlie.
“Williams apparently thought it would make people believe that someone was trying to stop him from revealing his information on the Ponzi scheme,” Langlie wrote in a news release this afternoon.
He was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma by Judge Robert S. Bryan.
“Mr. Williams, you were a con man of the worst order during the course of these events,” Judge Bryan said at sentencing, according to the news release. “I believe you are quite likely to do something again in the future.”
Williams was also sentenced to three years of supervision after his release.
His step-mother and brother-in-law were victims of the Ponzi fraud, according to case documents.
Case documents describe how Williams threatened the Atlanta fraud victims who he hoped would hire him and drove to the Atlanta Ponzi trial in a van loaded with a variety of guns, components for explosive and a copy of the “Anarchists Cookbook”. That’s where he was arrested in the spring of 2008.
The Doty resident blew up his mailbox on Chandler Road with a pipe bomb on Oct. 21, 2007, according to federal prosecutors. The blast, which would have badly injured Williams if it had occurred as he described, was investigated by Lewis County sheriff’s detectives and ultimately by ATF agents and U.S. Postal inspectors, according to case documents.
Federal prosecutors called him a dangerous man with no respect for the law and asked for a ten year sentence, according to Langlie.
“Williams’ scheme was real, and it was undeniably violent,” prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo. “Williams built a bomb, blew up his mailbox, lied to law enforcement, accused innocent people of committing a crime he himself committed, and then tricked law enforcement into conducting an extensive investigation.”
Williams’ attorney described his client as delusional and a paranoid drug user, according to a news story today in the Seattlepi.com
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter