Keavy couple to plead guilty to threatening witness

Two Keavy residents accused of threatening a confidential informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives plan to plead guilty today to charges against them in federal court.

Christina Denham and her boyfriend Brandon Pitman were arrested in mid-July and charged through criminal complaint for threatening to kill an alleged confidential informant in a state drug case against Denham’s aunt Judy Wilder. The two were indicted in February by a federal grand jury for conspiring to threaten or retaliate against a witness.

According to an affidavit filed by ATF Special Agent Todd Tremaine on Jan. 22, Kentucky State Police (KSP) arrested Denham’s aunt, Judy Wilder, 55, for trafficking in a controlled substance on January 16. 

KSP allegedly used a confidential informant to make a controlled drug purchase off of Wilder that led to her arrest.

The complaint alleges that from January 16th through January 20th, Denham and Brandon Pitman left numerous threatening messages on the alleged informant’s voicemail. Most of the messages included repeated profanities and threatened the alleged informant’s life, including one in which Denham threatened to kill others connected to the alleged informant, including the children of the alleged informant’s ex-girlfriend.

In three voicemails, Pitman attempted to locate the alleged informant’s whereabouts by representing himself as a law enforcement officer seeking to provide protective custody.  

The alleged informant turned the voicemails over to an ATF agent for review.  Authorities arrested Denham at her residence on an outstanding warrant for Flagrant Non-Support. Pitman was also present and was arrested as well.

Both are scheduled to appear today before U.S. District Judge Amul R. Tharpar during a rearraignment hearing during which they are expected to plead guilty to the charge. Neither has a plea agreement with prosecutors.

The two face up to 20 years in prison, $250,000 in fines and three years of supervised release.