A convicted sex offender from Youngwood was found guilty Thursday of threatening a Westmoreland County prosecutor who secured his original conviction in 2009.
Jurors deliberated less than an hour before finding Timothy J. Murphy, 42, guilty of one felony charge of retaliation against a prosecutor and misdemeanor counts of making terroristic threats and harassment.
Murphy is serving a 32-year prison sentence for a 2009 conviction on charges of indecent assault against children and possession of child pornography.
He was arrested again last summer after Westmoreland County court officials received a handwritten letter they claimed contained threats against the assistant district attorney who served as lead prosecutor on the original case.
Prosecutors said the letter, written by Murphy, included descriptive threats of violence and sexual acts against the now former assistant district attorney and her family members.
Murphy, one of three witnesses to testify in the three-day trial told jurors, denied the letter was a threat. Murphy maintained the letter was a plea for help to revamp the mandated treatment program for convicted sex offenders while incarcerated in the state’s prison system. Murphy claimed the program promotes pedophilia and sought the county prosecutors help to for a request to be castrated.
Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael Stewart II said he will sentence Murphy on the new convictions later this year.