Cape Coral man gets 4 years for threats: Paul Richard Lukas

A Cape Coral man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for phoning in threats to kill people in three states, and the court went above the guideline range after counting roughly forty prior convictions

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 26, 2026

A black and white photograph of a pair of open metal handcuffs hanging from a dark metal railing, one cuff hooked over the bar and the other dangling on its chain against a pale wall. No person, no place, no signage and no lettering appears in the frame. A generic illustration of custody, not a photograph of this event.

Stock photo

Stock photo. Not the actual scene. Photo: mehmetakifarts / Pexels

What it changes

This is a closed federal case rather than an open public-safety situation, so nothing here asks a Cape Coral resident to do anything. What it does is put a documented outcome on the record for a case that began with a phone call in January. According to the US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, Paul Richard Lukas, 51, of Cape Coral was sentenced on Wednesday by US District Judge Kyle Dudek to four years in federal prison for making interstate communications of threats to injure, and he had pleaded guilty on 20 May. The office says the threats were made on 30 January, about a month after he was released from Florida state prison for violent offences, and that he phoned in threats to kill several people located in Florida, Georgia and Alaska. One detail in the release is worth noticing because it shows how fast the response ran: the office says one of the people threatened reported it to the FBI, that the FBI asked the Cape Coral Police Department for help, and that officers reached Lukas at his home less than an hour after the FBI was notified, where they found several empty rifle cases. The other detail worth noticing is the sentence itself. The office says the court varied upward, meaning it went above what the guidelines called for, after considering a criminal history of roughly forty prior adult convictions, many of them involving batteries, assaults and threats. An upward variance is a deliberate judicial choice rather than a formula, and it is the reason this sentence is longer than the arithmetic alone would produce. The case was investigated by the FBI and the Cape Coral Police Department and prosecuted by Assistant US Attorney Matthew Redavid.

A Cape Coral man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for making threatening phone calls in which he said he would kill people in Florida, Georgia and Alaska.

The US Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida says Paul Richard Lukas, 51, was sentenced on Wednesday by US District Judge Kyle Dudek for making interstate communications of threats to injure. He pleaded guilty on 20 May. United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the sentence.

An hour between the report and the front door

According to the office, the calls were made on 30 January, roughly a month after Lukas was released from Florida state prison for violent offences.

One of the people he threatened reported it to the FBI. The FBI then asked the Cape Coral Police Department for help, and the office says officers made contact with Lukas at his home less than an hour after the FBI received the report. There, according to the release, they found several empty rifle cases.

Why the sentence is longer than the guidelines

The office says the court varied upward when it imposed the sentence, which means it went above the range the sentencing guidelines produced.

The reason it gives is the criminal history the court weighed: approximately forty prior adult convictions, many of them involving batteries, assaults and threats against other people. The phrase the Justice Department uses in the title of its own announcement is "recidivist violent offender".

The case was investigated by the FBI and the Cape Coral Police Department. Assistant US Attorney Matthew Redavid prosecuted it.

A Cape Coral man has been sentenced to four years in federal prison for phoning in threats to kill people in three states, and the court went above the guideline range after counting roughly forty prior convictions

An hour between the report and the front door

Why the sentence is longer than the guidelines

Cape Coral has set its stormwater fee at 163 dollars a unit for the year that starts in October, a seven dollar rise that is the fifth in a row, and the city puts the extra money into drainage, canals and flood prevention work

Cape Coral has rescinded the precautionary boil water notice around 1019 SE 43rd Street, the city's longest running area, after seven days and twenty-two hours, and four areas covering about thirty acres stay active

The Postal Service has stopped delivering to homes on Northwest 16th Terrace in Cape Coral, the street where the city is already drilling into a sinking road, and is holding the mail for collection at the Cape Coral North branch

Cape Coral's active boil water layer has gone from three areas to five since this morning, and the two additions are records the city first opened on 17 August, doubling the acreage under a precautionary notice