United States v. Stephen Thorn

── United States v. Stephen Thorn ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit Date: April 27, 2026 Category: NEW USCA11 Case: 24-12791 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/27/2026 Page: 1 of 9 NOT FOR PUBLICATION In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 24-12791 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus STEPHEN JAY THORN, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:23-cr-00361-WFJ-CPT-1 ____________________ Before ROSENBAUM, GRANT, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Stephen Thorn appeals his sentence of 60 months’ imprison- ment, a 30-month upward variance, for making an interstate threat to injure a federal district judge and her family. Thorn argues that USCA11 Case: 24-12791 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/27/2026 Page: 2 of 9 2 Opinion of the Court 24-12791 the sentence was substantively unreasonable because the district court considered factors already accounted for in the guideline range and failed to give adequate weight to mitigating factors. Be- cause the sentence was substantively reasonable, we affirm. I. Thorn left a series of five threatening voicemails for a federal district judge after reading an online article criticizing one of her judicial opinions. He dialed *67 before each call to mask his iden- tity. The first voicemail criticized the judge for not knowing “what LGBTQ kids go through.” Doc. 62 ¶ 12(a). The second voicemail vaguely threatened the judge’s children and grandchildren. The third voicemail made more specific threats by naming her husband, the city they lived in, and the number of children the judge had, and said, “you need to be very careful.” Id. ¶ 12(c). The fourth voicemail named the judge’s two children as well as a home ad- dress, said it would be “very easy to track you down,” and threat- ened that “what goes around, comes around.” Id. ¶ 12(d). The fifth voicemail repeated the names of her children and husband as well as her address and again said “you’re easy to track down.” Id. ¶ 12(e). The judge’s law clerk listened to the voicemails, notified the judge, and reported the threat to the U.S. Marshals Service. A grand jury indicted Thorn for making an interstate threat to injure, 18 U.S.C. § 875(c) (Count 1), and making phone calls with the intent to make a threat and without disclosing his identity, 47 U.S.C. § 223(a)(1)(C) (Count 2). Thorn was arrested and admitted that he had made the calls because he was angry about one of the USCA11 Case: 24-12791 Document: 53-1 Date Filed: 04/27/2026 Page: 3 of 9 24-12791 Opinion of the Court 3 judge’s opinions. Thorn pleaded guilty to Count 1 in exchange for the government’s agreement to dismiss Count 2. The district court accepted Thorn’s guilty plea. The presentence investigation report calculated a base of- fense level of 12 based on Thorn’s conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 875(c), according to United States Sentencing Guideline § 2A6.1(a)(1). The report applied a two-level increase under sec- tion 2A6.1(b)(2) becaus