A federal jury has convicted a Columbia man of threatening a lawyer in a major drug-trafficking case.
70-year-old Bruce Wayne Stephens faces up to 20 years in federal prison without parole.
Federal prosecutors say Stephens said things like “snitches belong in ditches” and threatened to kill an attorney and the attorney’s family. Authorities say Stephens made the threats on the day of his son’s September court appearance. Federal prosecutors say Stephens made a series of threats intended to retaliate against those involved in his son’s prosecution.
Stephens is the father of Malcolm Redmon of Columbia, who’s been sentenced to 24 years in federal prison without parole for cocaine charges. Federal prosecutors say Stephens made threats against an attorney for one of Redmon’s co-defendants, at the Christopher Bond Federal Courthouse in Jefferson City. According to prosecutors, Stephens told the attorney outside the courthouse: “snitches, you a … snitch … I will kill you, kill your wife, kill your family.”
The FBI investigated this case.
