REGIONAL NEWS
A Middle Georgia man with a history of arson and sending death threats – including against Jones County officials – pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to mailing threatening communications to government officials.
Travis Leroy Ball, 56, of Barnesville, pleaded guilty to one count of mailing threatening communications, a charge carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
According to court documents, the FBI obtained a letter in March of last year addressed to U.S. District Judge Marc T. Treadwell in which the writer claimed to be a U.S. Secret Service agent who had investigated one of the defendant's prior cases.
In the letter – later revealed to have been written by Ball – he demanded that the charge in Ball's most recent federal cases be dismissed and that he be released from federal custody.
Using the name of a former cellmate, Ball also wrote letters to the federal court in Valdosta and to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in Washington, D.C., threatening to kill employees and their families, as well as burn down property.
“Death threats against public officials are taken extremely seriously by our office and will result in prison time,” said Peter D. Leary, U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Georgia. 'Keeping people safe is the highest priority of our office and our law enforcement partners. These types of threats cannot and will not be tolerated.' Ball also wrote a letter to the Upson County Sheriff's Office last July, claiming to be an FBI agent working on a top-secret case. The letter demanded that Ball’s photos and personal information be removed and deleted from jail records.
The FBI compared the various letters, handwriting, letterhead, postage stamps, the language of the letters, and the “INMATE MAIL” stamp on each letter and determined Ball wrote them while in custody. Officers also found writing material and stamps in Ball's cell.
Ball was indicted by a Jones County Grand Jury in 2021 for five counts of terroristic threats, three counts of tampering with evidence and three counts of forgery in first degree.
Ball was arrested March 23, 2021, and charged with three counts of terroristic threats and acts.
In a story about the arrest in The Jones County News, JCSO Investigator Lt. Kenny Allen said the first letter was received by the JCSO March 19. He said in that letter Ball said he was going to kill every employee at the sheriff’s office and burn down the building.
Sheriff Butch Reece added that there was a powdery substance in the envelope, and the letter stated it was Anthrax. That claim was quickly determined to be false.
Allen said Superior Court Clerk Pamela Dixon called the Sheriff’s office March 19 after he had left for the day to say she had also received a threatening letter. The investigator said he went to see Dixon first thing Monday morning.
He said the courthouse letter contained the same threats, including that all the prosecutors and judges were going to be killed and building burned down. The sheriff said another letter was received by the JCSO March 22 that threatened bodily harm to a specific individual living in Jones County.
Ball pleaded guilty to those charges in February 2023 and was sentenced to five years.
