Court upholds 10-year sentence for killer who threatened federal judge

A federal appeals court has upheld the 10-year prison sentence given a former Lake County man who sent a racist and threatening letter to a judge three years after her husband and mother were murdered in their Chicago home.

In a six-page unanimous decision, the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that while the sentence issued Justin Houghtaling was more than twice the term recommended under federal guidelines, it also was well deserved.

"The need to incapacitate Houghtaling could alone be a sufficient reason to impose a sentence at the statutory maximum," the court wrote. "When combined with the extreme cruelty of the offense and the lack of any reason to believe that the defendant is receptive to treatment, the district court's sentence is reasonable."

Houghtaling, 28, formerly of Round Lake, was serving a 20-year prison term for his role in a 2001 McHenry slaying when, according to authorities, he mailed U.S. District Court Judge Joan Lefkow a letter with what the appellate court called "vile racist and anti-Semitic content."

The 2008 letter referenced the February 2005 murders of Lefkow's husband and mother by a man disgruntled over decisions the judge made from the bench, threatened to kill the judge and claimed Houghtaling was the head of a white supremacist organization.

In his appeal of the maximum 10-year term, Houghtaling claimed his sentencing judge focused too much on the contents of his letter, and not enough on his troubled childhood, substance abuse problems and psychological issues. He also argued that he never intended to harm Lefkow, but instead sent the letter because he thought it would get him out of the Illinois prison system and into what he believed would be a more comfortable federal prison.

The appellate judges, however, said the lower court was justified in giving Houghtaling the maximum.

"The court characterized Houghtaling's threat as 'uniquely extraordinary and extreme in its cruelty,' and

concluded that this crime 'clearly demonstrates that he is not now and possibly never will be capable of rehabilitation,'" the appellate court wrote.

Houghtaling will not begin serving the 10-year federal sentence until he completes his 20-year term for his role in the March 2001 murder of Lakemoor businessman Raul Briseno during a botched holdup of the victim's Burrito Express restaurant in McHenry.