INDIANAPOLIS — An Arizona man was sentenced to five years in federal prison for stalking and threatening an Indianapolis woman and her husband.
Prosecutors say 40-year-old Patrick Kearney had been stalking, harassing and threatening the woman, and later her husband, for more than two decades — calling them hundreds of times, sending packages with poison in them and saying they should die.
Kearney was indicted by a federal grand jury in 2022 on charges of interstate stalking, transmitting threats via interstate communications and making harassing telephone calls to the Indianapolis couple.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of stalking, one count of transmitting threats via interstate commerce and two counts of making harassing telephone calls. In addition to the five-year sentence, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Tanya Walton Pratt ordered Kearney to be supervised for three years after his release and pay a $500 fine.
"He chose to terrorize an innocent couple and rob them of safety and peace—driven by his toxic mix of entitlement and resentment,” said Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. "Even without physical violence, the threat of escalation and fear of the unknown can be deeply traumatizing for victims. These actions are simply unacceptable, and federal law enforcement agencies will work together to identify the perpetrators and hold them accountable.”
Court documents say Kearney began stalking and harassing the woman in the early 2000s, when he and the woman attended college together.
Kearney sought a relationship with the woman, but she wasn't interested. That's when he began a stalking and harassment campaign targeting her.
When she graduated college, she never saw Kearney again.
In September 2019, nearly 20 years later, Kearney began terrorizing the woman again.
Documents say he sent her letters and packages telling her she should have died in the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that she should eat poison and that she should go to hell.
He also repeatedly called the woman at all hours of the day and night and left profane, insulting voicemails on her phone.
When Kearney learned the woman was engaged to be married — after finding the woman's wedding website online — he began harassing and threatening the woman's husband as well.
Prosecutors say between Oct. 2019 and Sept. 2022, Kearney called the couple's cell phones 404 times and left at least 155 voicemails. He also sent multiple packages to their home that had insect poison and pornographic material in them.
Kearney was arrested and appeared in federal court in Arizona on Oct. 12, before being transported to Indiana.
He has his initial court appearance in Indianapolis on Nov. 17. On Nov. 23 he was taken into the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Kearney could be sentenced to five years in prison on each of three charges he faces. He is also looking at up to two years in prison for each of the other six charges filed against him.
If convicted, he could also be fined $250,000 and sentenced to up to three years of supervised release following any prison term.
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