Washington County man gets prison time after racist outburst toward postal worker
A Washington County man who spewed racist remarks to a letter carrier last year was sentenced to serve over five years in prison Wednesday morning.
William Franklin, of Tennille, appeared in front of Judge Marc Treadwell Wednesday after a jury found him guilty of one count of mail obstruction, two counts of assaulting a federal officer and one count of retaliating against a witness, with the two counts of assault being enhanced to hate crimes after federal prosecutors showed in trial that he was using racial slurs against the letter carrier. A previous sentencing hearing was scheduled for Aug. 6, but it was rescheduled for Wednesday.
The conviction came after Franklin confronted the postal worker about moving his vehicle, and used racial slurs toward the letter carrier, who is Black. The postal worker, who recorded part of the confrontation, told Franklin that the remarks would lead to a fight if he wasn’t on duty. Though Franklin responded that they could “square up” right then, the carrier said no since he didn’t want to lose his job, according to court records.
Franklin became agitated and aggressive with the letter carrier, threatening to punch him and run him over with his tractor, according to federal prosecutors. He had also called someone to bring a rope so that Franklin could drag him away, prosecutors said in court records.
An investigation was launched by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in June 2024, but in December a second incident occurred. The letter carrier’s work vehicle was hit by a tractor while he was in it, court records say. The tractor fled the scene. While investigating, the USPIS and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office found a tractor registered to Franklin with fresh damage.
Franklin’s defense team sought to make arguments that the man’s behavior was caused by anxiety and depression. Matthew Norman, Franklin’s psychologist, was brought to testify by Franklin’s defense attorney Matthew Kyle Winchester in a previous court hearing and implied that Franklin’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder and depression diagnoses explained his behavior.
Winchester also argued in court that, apart from the incident, Franklin was part of a normal, hard-working family that managed a successful farming business.
But federal prosecutor Sonja Profit argued that Franklin’s diagnosis did not give him the right to treat the victim the way he did. Records from his cell phone used in the trial showed the jury that he had racist memes on his phone and sent messages to his family targeting the postal worker.
Profit read a statement from the letter carrier in court, stating that the incident had changed him as a person. Although he was once a loving husband and father, the incident made him tense and scared. The letter carrier was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He also said in the letter to the judge that the truck impacted in the incident has not been repaired.
“I thought I was coping, and then the December incident happened,” the prosecutor read from the statement. “I am in a constant state of anxiety.”
On Wednesday, Winchester reiterated his statements from the earlier sentencing hearing, but also argued that the racist memes on Franklin’s phone had come from a family member. Prosecutors argued that Franklin wouldn’t have downloaded the images and kept contact with the family member if he disagreed with the images.
Winchester asked the court if Franklin could serve a home confinement sentence that he was not sending the racist memes to others, but received them from a family member.
Treadwell declined to give Franklin home confinement, saying the jury had decided this was a hate crime and that the letter carrier was targeted. He sentenced Franklin to five years and six months with three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $5,104 in restitution.
Evidence found in Franklin and his wife’s phones after investigators executed a search warrant through their phones “supported the finding that Franklin’s crimes were motivated, at least in part, by the race and color of the letter carrier,” according to federal prosecutors.
Winchester indicated in court that Franklin would file an appeal.
