VENTURA (AP) — A former Thousand Oaks City Council candidate has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for threatening to kill six prosecutors in the Ventura County district attorney’s office.

The state Justice Department says Daniel Avila was convicted Monday of six counts of making criminal threats and six counts of threatening public officials on April 4 in Ventura County Superior Court.

While running for office in 2004, Avila was charged with hacking into Verizon’s system to send thousands of bogus text messages to thousands of residents, in the name of a fellow candidate.

While in jail on charges that included computer fraud and identity, Avila threatened in a phone call to kill one prosecutor and wrote threats to rape, kill and burn five female prosecutors in letters.

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