A Newtown Township man who threatened to go to the Bucks County Courthouse and kill the man he was infatuated with was sentenced to a four- to 23-month prison term yesterday after pleading guilty to terroristic threats.
On July 19, 47-year-old Edward Joseph Twining was stopped at the courthouse by security personnel, who were aware of his threat on the lives of William Marietta and Marietta's girlfriend, Helen Hovan.
Security guards, who were looking for a man fitting Twining's description, found a gun in his briefcase and Twining was later arrested. Twining knew Marietta would be at the courthouse, court records said, because Marietta was scheduled for a hearing on a minor criminal charge.
At his hearing yesterday, Twining said his intention was not to kill Marietta but to kill himself in front of the man he loved, Senior Deputy District Attorney Terry Houck said.
Twining also said there were love letters in the briefcase he brought to the courthouse.
The subjects of the threats chose not to make a statement in court, Houck said. "They're all very frightened of this guy and what he might do because of the threats he made."
Twining said yesterday that he was upset because Hovan had broken up the relationship between Marietta and him, Houck said. But Marietta has told Houck that "there never was such a relationship," the prosecutor said.
Marietta resided at Twining's house for a period of time, Houck said, but he was living there much of that time with his girlfriend.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Kenneth G. Biehn sentenced Twining to a consecutive five-year probationary term for threatening Hovan.
Bucks County Court personnel learned of the threats from an assistant public defender who was representing Marietta on a receiving stolen property charge.
Twining was arrested outside Courtroom 2. That courtroom is the place criminal defendants wait to find out where their trials will be or plead guilty to the charges against them.
Twining was not charged with bringing a firearm into the courthouse. Doing so is legal as long as the gun is not brought into a courtroom.