An Ottawa man has been sentenced to a total of 43 months in prison on two charges of aggravated intimidation of a witness. Jeremy Penland earlier was charged with multiple criminal charges, but in a plea deal Penland pleaded guilty to two counts of intimidating a witness in exchange for dropping the other charges. Because Penland has already spent not quite two years in the county jail, with credit for time served, he will only have to serve about 17 months more. In January of 2018, Penland made threats to “shoot up” Ransom Memorial Hospital, and made threats the same day to shoot police officers. Those threats led to the hospital facility being put on lockdown. He has been in the Franklin County Jail since. He accepted a plea deal in July.
