He went to prison for threats to chop up a Tri-Cities judge. Now there’s more intimidation

A man already accused of threatening a Superior Court judge is now accused of threatening Benton County deputy prosecutors.

In the span of a month, Brandon L. VanWinkle, 43, allegedly sent two letters to the deputy prosecutors saying his friends would follow them home and attack them.

The Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office was asked to handle the case and charged him with two counts of intimidating a public servant.

This is not the first time VanWinkle has faced charges for threatening public officials. He is currently accused of threatening Judge Alex Ekstrom.

Those threats came just 10 months after VanWinkle was released from prison for saying he wanted to “chop up” Ekstrom in 2016.

Since his release in 2021, VanWinkle has gotten into more legal trouble while being incarcerated than when he was free. Three of the four cases filed against him happened after his January 2022 arrest for second-degree robbery. In all, he’s facing five felony charges.

VanWinkle has previously claimed he is the Messiah and married to singer Christina Aguilera. His statements have earned him two mental health evaluations by Eastern State Hospital professionals.

At other times, the man, who is representing himself, is respectful and lucid.

Presently, the legal proceedings against him are on hold while officials send him to Eastern State Hospital for an in-patient evaluation.

A hospital psychologist has recommended that he be brought to the Medical Lake facility after he refused to show up for an online interview while he was in the jail.

Threatening prosecutors

VanWinkle’s latest case started with a letter that arrived for Deputy Prosecutor Brittnie Roehm on Sept. 15.

In the letter, he allegedly said his friends were going to follow her home and attack her for charging him “with crimes he did not commit,” according to court records.

The letter allegedly goes on to say that he didn’t order this, but he can’t stop it because he is in jail.

The prosecution of his cases were transferred to Deputy Prosecutor Brendan Siefken, and VanWinkle sent another letter, this one claimed that members of the Gypsy Jokers motorcycle gang would wait for him after work and follow him home and shoot him.

“They said they will handle the prosecutor for charging me for charges I never committed,” VanWinkle allegedly wrote. “It’s out of my hands. I would try to help you, but you got me on lock for some charges I never committed.”

It’s unclear if VanWinkle has any ties to the Gypsy Jokers.

Both attorneys believed that he was trying to influence their decisions by sending the letters.

Since the case involved two Benton County deputy prosecutor, the county prosecutor asked Franklin County to review the case. Daniel Stovern, a deputy in Franklin County, filed the new charges.

Previous crimes

VanWinkle is accused of three felonies that were all committed in the span of a month in early 2022.

When he was released from prison in April 2021, he was supposed to stay in touch with the Department of Corrections.

He stopped reporting in November, and then, two months later, he was allegedly caught stealing clothes at a store at Columbia Center mall.

When an employee tried to stop him, he is accused of hitting her in the face.

He was arrested and four days later he reportedly had a destructive outburst in the jail, including throwing feces, breaking things and spitting blood and saliva. He was charged with malicious mischief for that outburst.

On Feb. 3, VanWinkle was supposed to be in court for a motion to either dismiss his charges or get treatment.

The hearing was scheduled for a day when Judge Ekstrom would normally be hearing cases. Since he was the victim of VanWinkle’s previous threats, the judge removed himself from hearing the case and rescheduled for another judge.

When a jail corrections officer told VanWinkle about the delay, he allegedly told the officer “to tell him (Ekstrom) that I’m going to kill him,” according to court documents.

Eastern evaluations

Since being booked into the jail, VanWinkle has taken over his own defense. While many of his hearings have been largely routine, others have been peppered with delusional claims such as that he is the Messiah returned to Earth to examine the criminal justice system.

This earned him an evaluation by Eastern State Hospital in May. At the time, VanWinkle refused to participate.

“Available information does not reflect the presence of a mental disease or defect, rather behavior consistent with his last known diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder,” psychologist R. Cory Fanto wrote in May.

At the time, VanWinkle was allowed to continue to representing himself.

But his recent behavior prompted Siefken to ask for another evaluation. VanWinkle had continued to repeat that his claims about being the Messiah and being married to Christina Aguilera.

Siefken also provided a letter from VanWinkle that was sent to the prosecutor signed “Messiah J. Christ.”

“The letter goes on to state, ‘I have sacrificed my whole life for you, my people and my government. They have crucified me as a criminal, so to mask my true identity, I come back as a criminal,’” state psychologist Nathan Henry wrote in his most recent evaluation.

VanWinkle again refused to participate in an interview. This time, Henry said that without some interaction with VanWinkle, he couldn’t rule out that schizophrenia or another psychotic disorder were affecting VanWinkle’s ability to understand the proceedings.

Henry also suggested VanWinkle could be feigning a mental illness for some sort of gain.

Henry asked to have VanWinkle brought to Eastern State Hospital for a 15-day evaluation. This would give their team time to conduct tests and observe him.

This story was originally published March 14, 2023 at 5:00 AM.