Man to serve 5 years in jail for sending his ex-wife dead rat and black rose as part of harassment pattern

There are abuses that seem harmless, but carry a lot of hate

Photo: Unsplash

By: EFE 10 from January 2021

MIAMI, Florida – A man from 57 years was sentenced to four years and 10 months in jail in Florida for harassing and threatening in various ways, including mailing a dead rat, to a person who, according to local media, is his ex-wife.

In addition to imposing the sentence, the federal judge of Tampa Virginia Hernández ordered Romney Ellis, Indianapolis resident , 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 those “associated” in this case against Ellis, who pleaded guilty. able of the charges that are imputed to him in April of 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 harassment.

Threatened to behead her

In 2019 Ellis continued his campaign of harassment against the victim through text messages, photographs 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 from 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 harassment people.

Court documents showed that since 1993 until his arrest in March 2020, 57 people applied for and obtained protection orders against Ellis for harassment, stalking, threats and acts of violence.