By PAUL ANDERSON

A 34-year-old man was sentenced on Thursday, March 5 to seven years in federal prison for threatening an Orange County Superior Court judge who oversaw his child custody case.

Byrom Zuniga Sanchez, formerly of Laguna Niguel, was convicted Dec. 4 of two counts of threats by interstate and foreign communication. Prosecutors sought a six-year federal prison sentence, but U.S. District Judge Fred W. Slaughter went beyond sentencing guidelines due to the “grim” nature of the threats, “lack of contrition,” and “concerns about these threats continuing.”

Slaugher ordered Sanchez to pay $22,798.12 in restitution and placed him on three years of supervised release as well as 20 hours of community service weekly and to participate in a domestic violence treatment program.

Zuniga Sanchez, who represented himself in the trial, asked the judge for “time served,” or the two years he has been in custody in the case.

A brief skirmish occurred in the hallway outside the courtroom following the hearing when supporters of Sanchez got into a conflict with the mother of the defendant’s son and her supporters. U.S. marshals had to be called to restore order.

Sanchez told Slaughter he wanted to “fully take responsibility” for his “choices of words,” but then went on to explain that the entire case was “really about diction” and disputed that they were threats.

“I am not at all apologetic how I love and protect my children,” Sanchez said. He claimed he suffered “emotional and physical abuse” growing up and developed “scapegoat child syndrome.” He appeared eager to be deported back to Mexico, nodding along as Slaughter advised him that was a possibility.

“When it comes to my relationship with this country, it’s over,” he said. “Goodbye, good riddance. We’re done.” He claimed, “My son didn’t feel safe in his mother’s care,” and added, “I used to be an abused child. You learn not to say a (expletive) thing.”

As for his punishment, “I believe time served is most appropriate,” he said. “And anything beyond that is basically pissing on the bullied kid trying to protect his kid.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Diane B. Roldan told Slaughter, “This is a defendant who will do it again and again. … He has shown it today. … He hates (the judge he threatened) … He hates the mother of his child.”

Sanchez’s “grievances makes him dangerous.”

The prosecutor also faulted Sanchez’s “chilling lack of remorse.”

Sanchez “repeatedly” violated restraining orders in the child custody case, Roldan said.

The Orange County judge who Sanchez had threatened made a victim impact statement at the sentencing hearing. She requested that Sanchez receive 10 years in prison to deter others at a time when threats to judges are on the rise.

During the trial, she said at the hearing, Sanchez would read the threats aloud, even though they did not help his defense because “he was just enjoying the reaction.”

She added, “His threats are specific and they’re ongoing. … He threatened anyone who touched this case.”

Sanchez turned away from his ex-girlfriend as she told Slaughter about how he abused her.

“Defendant used to abuse me, to threaten my life,” the ex-girlfriend said. “And diminished me as a person. … His mission is to punish those he thinks wronged him. … Defendant threatened my life and family’s life multiple times.”

Her anxiety worsened to the point she would ask co-workers to walk her to her car at the end of the day because she feared “an ambush,” she said. “Most of all I was in fear for my son.”

She was plagued with “panic attacks” and required therapy, she said.

“Byrom, you are an abuser, you prey on people, you are a monster,” she said. “But I can say now that you have no power over me. I am not afraid of you anymore. You did not ruin me. I will never forgive you for the hell you put me through.”

Sanchez responded that his ex-girlfriend “used to take my glasses off and punch me in the face. … And you’re going to use the word ‘abuse?’ Whatever. … This is ‘larping,’ live-action role playing.”

During the trial, Roldan told jurors that Sanchez could have appealed the result in his child custody case, but “instead, the defendant chose to threaten and scare” the judge.

Referring to a video he posted on social media, Roldan said, “He’s thinking of the most violent and grotesque ways to murder (the judge) … he wanted her to be afraid… He also threatened (the judge) in writing. … Those emails are this case.”

Roldan noted how Sanchez read one of the more damning emails aloud to jurors that included him saying, ” … it is time to die. I am more committed to murdering you than to being present as a father.”

Roldan dismissed Sanchez’s claims in his testimony, insisting that he was joking.

She argued that on one hand, he tried to evoke sympathy as a father who lost his custody case, but was also engaging in “morbid comedy. … It can’t be both. But you know it’s neither.”

Sanchez’s threats forced Orange County sheriff’s deputies to set up a command center and boost patrols in the Lamoreaux Justice Center on Oct. 13, 2023, Roldan said. Some employees stayed home, but the judge who he threatened testified that she didn’t want one man to derail the administration of justice so she reported to work that day, Roldan said.

The judge presided over Sanchez’s custody case in 2021, and the threats started pouring in to her court’s email account and from Instagram in mid-2023, Roldan said.

The threats “escalated” from a demand for the judge to resign to pledges of violence, Roldan argued.

Roldan pointed to a music video by rapper-singer Ashnikko that Zuniga Sanchez sent to the judge’s email account and his choice to repeatedly replay it for jurors in the trial. The defendant played it twice during his closing arguments.

A video he posted Oct. 5, 2023 “says it all, his obsession,” Roldan said.

“She didn’t resign” as he demanded, the prosecutor argued. “So he’s going to fire her.”

She also ridiculed his assertion in his opening statement in which he compared himself to Lassie or Scooby Doo.

“He said he was a friendly dog raising issues of his son’s case,” Roldan said. “I don’t remember that episode. It is offensive and vile that he says that to you. It is a lie.”

She played a portion of the clip for jurors in which the defendant compared himself to a “dangerous dog.”

Sanchez hinted that his custody case was based on his immigration status. He claimed he was earning $600,000 annually so he had no motive to “flee to Mexico and kidnap my son.”

Sanchez said he was a Mexican national like his parents, who brought him to the U.S. when he was 18 months old.

Authorities searching for fugitive who threatened Orange County judge

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