An inmate (rape, murder) threatened to kill a Miami federal judge, indictment says
Murder is among the reasons Miami’s Marcus Pratt now lives in a Florida prison, and murder is what a federal court indictment says Pratt threatened a Miami federal judge with in letters sent last year.
The three letters, according to the indictment filed last week, were handwritten and signed by Pratt.
Pratt is charged with three counts of mailing threatening communications and three counts of influencing, impeding or retaliating against a federal judge. Each count carries a possible sentence of 10 years, although maximum sentences rarely are given.
Since 2010, the 38-year-old Pratt — aka Jamal Pratt, Marquis Pratt, Donovan Reed — has been in Florida Department of Corrections custody at Okaloosa Correctional Institution in Crestview. In the 10 months after he finished an eight-month prison stint for grand theft, robbery and moving cocaine, Pratt sold cocaine too close to a school; kidnapped and raped someone; then committed second-degree murder.
He was sentenced on Feb. 15, 2010. Online corrections records put Pratt’s scheduled release at June 17, 2033. Visitation for him has been suspended.
Letters from Okaloosa jail?
The indictment didn’t make clear what connection exists between Pratt and U.S. District Court Judge Kevin M. Moore. The target of the letters is named only by the initials “K.M.M.” in the indictment.
Moore did his undergraduate work at Florida State University before moving on to Fordham Law, where he graduated in 1976. He has been a federal judge since being nominated by President George H.W. Bush in 1992 and was chief judge from 2014 through 2021.
The indictment says the first letter, dated Aug. 2, 2023, was addressed to a “Chief Judge” at the federal courthouse said Pratt’s “associates would “kill” Moore. A Sept. 27 letter addressed to Moore, the indictment said, repeated the earlier threat to kill Moore and added whoever else happened to be home at the time. The Oct. 10 letter addressed to Moore, the indictment said, promised that Pratt’s pals would kill Moore “very soon.”
This story was originally published March 13, 2024 at 1:28 PM.
