Gates Extortion Plot Ends In Man’s Conviction Defendant Says He Was Seeking Material For Novel; Jury Needs Just Four Hours

A man who said he sent death threats to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates only to get material for a novel was convicted Tuesday of trying to extort $5 million from the world’s richest man.

A five-man, seven-woman U.S. District Court jury deliberated barely four hours before convicting Adam Quinn Pletcher, 22, of four counts of sending threatening mail with intent to commit extortion.

He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine per count.

Judge Barbara Jacobs Rothstein set sentencing for May 29.

In a statement issued by Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray, Gates said, “This has been a very difficult incident for my family, so I want to thank all the law enforcement officials for their excellent work in resolving this case.”

Gates did not attend the trial.

Defense lawyer William Palmer and Pletcher’s parents, Dana Quinn Pletcher and Cheryl Pletcher, who both vouched for their son’s honesty as witnesses in the trial, would not comment.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Redkey said Pletcher spurned a plea bargain for undisclosed terms. The prosecutor predicted the defendant would wind up serving eight to 10 years in prison.

“He knew that he was taking a risk taking this to trial,” Redkey said.

In closing arguments, Redkey said Pletcher’s four elaborately menacing letters to Gates, research on offshore banks that offer secret accounts, enticing and encrypted pictures on the Internet and deleted computer files left no doubt about his purpose.

“The evidence of guilt in this case is overwhelming,” Redkey said. “This is the plan of a man who intends to take the money and keep it.”

Pletcher wanted the money to pursue a four-year dream of opening a non-alcohol nightclub for people 18 and older to be called Club Haven, Redkey said.

A thin, clean-cut high school graduate who never went to college, Pletcher testified Tuesday that the letters to Gates were to be the basis for a novel inspired by the Sylvester Stallone movie, “Assassins.”

“What I am offering you is simple,” the first letter said. “Your life for $5 million.”

Pletcher portrayed himself in the letter as a 34-year-old former Army Ranger who had killed 38 people as a private assassin and had a 100 percent kill rate.

Later letters threatened harm to Gates’ wife, Melinda; their daughter, Jennifer, and Microsoft head sales and marketing executive Steve Ballmer, and upped the ante to more than $5.2 million.

The letters, each sent in double envelopes marked “personal and confidential,” directed Gates to respond first via an Internet chat room in which Pletcher posted an alluring image of the entertainer Elvira, then on an encrypted computer disk and finally by wiring money to a bank account in Luxembourg.

The envelopes bore the return address of Apple Computer’s chief executive to make it less likely anyone at Microsoft but Gates would open them.