A Mineral Springs, Ark., man who mailed letters to seven Arkansas mayors threatening to hang them if certain demands went unmet pleaded guilty Wednesday afternoon in a Texarkana federal court.
Maverick Dean Bryan, 56, appeared before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey with Texarkana lawyer Jeff Harrelson in a third-floor, Arkansas-side courtroom. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Harris said Bryan's plea agreement includes Bryan's pleas of guilty to seven counts of mailing threatening communications, a 12- to 18-month federal prison sentence and the government's agreement to dismiss a single count of felon in possession of a firearm at sentencing.
"I never meant no man no harm," Bryan said. "I'm just an old trucker, a mountain man, equipment operator. That's all I am, ma'am. I made a grave mistake, your honor."
Handwritten letters postmarked Jan. 5, 2015, mailed to the mayors of Hope, Nashville, DeQueen, Ashdown, Lewisville, Prescott and Murfreesboro promised to hang the community leaders from trees on the courthouse lawn if they didn't put prayer and the Ten Commandments back in school and eliminate the Common Core curriculum.
At a detention hearing last year Bryan admitted in colorful testimony to penning the letters and to being the author of an advertisement that ran twice during 2015 in the Thrifty Nickel seeking a $23 million loan to raise a Christian army to overthrow the U.S. government. A confidential source who met with Bryan in response to the ad allegedly recorded Bryan stating he wants to kill all living U.S. presidents, Jimmy Carter in particular.
In a search warrant affidavit, Bryan's letter is quoted as demanding that the mayors no longer honor the votes of anyone who is homosexual, Muslim, socialist, communist or atheist, or who worships any God other than Jesus Christ, and that anyone fitting those definitions be required to "exit."
Bryan remains in federal custody. He will return to court for formal sentencing once a pre-sentence report, including a recommendation for punishment under federal guidelines, is received by the court in about three months.