Daniel Pesch Sentenced To Prison After Tri-County Health Department Threats & Vandalism
(CBS4) - A 38-year-old Denver man who wrote to the Tri-County Health Department "enjoy the broken windows assholes" after vandalizing the agency's building received a prison sentence from an Arapahoe County judge Friday. Daniel Pesch was ordered to spend 18 months in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
Judge Ryan Stuart, however, removed more than a year of that sentence -- 411 days to be exact -- when he allowed time that Pesch has already spent in jail be applied to the sentence.
Pesch had reached an agreement with prosecutors last month and pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of criminal mischief.
Pesch was arrested in May 2020. The health department received threatening messages and damage to its property after staff issued a stay-at-home order in March.
At the time of his arrest, Pesch was on probation for a 2017 Elbert County case. That year, Pesch confessed to the 2010 murder of Kiowa High School teacher Randy Wilson. But investigators found no evidence of Wilson's involvement, plus his statements conflicted with known information about the crime. Pesch later recanted his confession and prosecutors dropped the murder charge. Pesch pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of attempted escape which resulted in his probation.
A in-depth profile by Colorado Community Media uncovered Pesch's "history of seeking punishment for crimes he didn't commit."