A Pueblo man was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for threatening a Denver judge who was overseeing several of the man’s criminal cases.

Thomas Wornick, 43, was convicted of three counts of retaliation against a judge, a class 4 felony. He was already serving a deferred sentence for threatening former Sen. Cory Gardner when he was charged with the new offenses, according to the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

“When someone attempts to intimidate or harm those who serve the public, we will respond with every tool the law provides,” Deputy District Attorney Joseph Henriksen said in a statement on Wednesday. “This sentence makes clear that violent threats, no matter who makes them, will be met with serious consequences.”

Judge Judith Labuda told the Denver Police Department last year that Wornick, a combat veteran, sent him nine emails between March 5 and March 15, 2024. 

“On March 15, 2024, Mr. Wornick sent three emails to the (judicial) division, threatening to murder or kill me,” Labuda told investigators at the time. “His emails left me feeling unsettled, and in fear.”

Since Labuda is a judge in Denver, the case was handled by a special prosecutor from the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office.

In 2020, Wornick was arrested at Fort Carson, the U.S. Army installation in Colorado Springs, after the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office said he had threatened to kill several local attorneys, business owners, government officials, and “every Pueblo County Sheriff’s deputy.” The sheriff’s office said deputies served a search warrant on his Pueblo home at the time and found two guns, including a semi-automatic rifle, several knives, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

When Wornick threatened Gardner, the Republican U.S. senator who represented Colorado from 2015 to 2021, he detailed his combat service in an email to the senator, writing, “In 2003 I deployed to Iraq, I was blown up by an ied in my hmmwv and blown up again by a rocket weeks later. I suffer everyday of my life. I am going to kill senator cory gardner for refusing to help me get medical care,” the Pueblo Chieftan reported.

“No public servant should ever fear for their life simply for doing their job,” Assistant District Attorney Ryan Brackley said. “Mr. Wornick’s pattern of escalating threats demanded a strong, decisive response. Our office is committed to ensuring that intimidation has no place in our courts, and to protecting those involved in upholding the rule of law.”