Man will serve 5 years in prison for sending his ex-wife a dead rat and a black rose as part of a pattern of harassment | The State
MIAMI, Florida – A 57-year-old man was sentenced to four years and 10 months in jail in Florida for harassing and threatening in various ways, including sending a dead rat by mail, to a person who, according to local media, is his ex-wife.
In addition to imposing the sentence, Tampa Federal Judge Virginia Hernández ordered Romney Ellis, resident of Indianapolis, to refrain from having contact with the “victims associated with this case,” according to a statement from the Attorney General’s office in the central district of Florida.
Defendant pleads guilty
The statement does not identify the main “victim” or the “associates” in this case against Ellis, who pleaded guilty to the charges against him in April 2020.
According to court documents, for at least four years, Ellis participated in a harassment campaign against a person living in Hillsborough County (west coast of Florida).
Convicted of aggravated harassment
Between 2012 and 2018, a judge in that county issued multiple domestic violence warrants against Ellis, who in 2013 was convicted of aggravated stalking.
He threatened to behead her
In 2019 Ellis continued his campaign of harassment against the victim through text messages, photos and videos, in which he made threats such as traveling from Indiana to Florida to behead and set the victim on fire, the statement said.
Ellis used to make racially and sexually charged statements in text messages, including sending sexually explicit images of himself to the victim.
Dead rat and black rose
He also used the US mail to harass the victim and his family and friends. On one occasion, he mailed a package to the victim’s home containing a dead rat and a black rose.
In February 2020, Police executed a search warrant at Ellis’s home in Indianapolis and recovered a handwritten note containing the names and addresses of the victim and the victim’s family and friends.
The investigation also revealed that Ellis had a long history of harassing people.
Court documents showed that from 1993 until his arrest in March 2020, 14 people applied for and obtained protective orders against Ellis for harassment, stalking, threats and acts of violence.
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