LAKE MARY, Fla. – A Casselberry locksmith is behind bars after police claim he sent a church pastor a letter threatening to kill his family unless he paid him money.
Lake Mary police say they arrested 28-year-old Anthony Doyle Monday night and charged him with extortion and writing threatening letters.
Investigators say Doyle and Pastor Glenn Riggs of Starlight Baptist Church in Winter Springs both received letters.
According to the Lake Mary police report obtained by News 6, the letter that Doyle received was addressed to "Theft," and the letter Riggs received was addressed to, "Mr. Glenn Riggs."
Riggs' letter ordered him to pay $15,000 in small bills to prevent his family and children from "suffering a slow and painful death," according to the report.
The letter indicated that Riggs was to get the money to "a person you decided to show grace to."
Lake Mary police detectives say the obtained a written statement Doyle had made in a separate case to the Casselberry Police Department and compared it to the letters sent to both men.
They say they sent it to the crime laboratory at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which determined Doyle "probably" wrote the letters.
During his initial appearance at the Seminole County Jail Tuesday, Doyle's public defender said "probably" isn't enough evidence to hold him in jail.
"The only evidence they have is the letter where FDLE, itself, sent it to a handwriting expert, and said, 'I don't know if it's him, but I think it might've been.' That's the evidence," said attorney Larry Kowel.
After a tense argument with the prosecutor and the judge, the judge finally agreed to delay Tuesday's hearing for 24 hours.
She ordered police to come up with more detailed evidence, if they can.
Meantime, Doyle is held at the Seminole County Jail on $30,000 bond.?