A federal jury has convicted Bryan Cornwell, a 41-year-old former Telluride ski patroller, of repeatedly sending death threats to a law enforcement official based in Grand Junction.
Cornwell worked at Telluride for six years — from November 2015 to February 2021 — until he was terminated. According to Nancy Clark, a spokesperson for the resort, no one currently employed at Telluride “knows the details of his position, nor the details of his termination.”
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, the former Norwood local was convicted of two counts of transmitting threats after he sent more than 80 violent and graphic messages. The jury found Corwell not guilty on a third count of the same charge.
Prosecutors said Cornwell’s emails — sent between August and October 2023 — included repeated threats to kill and seriously harm the official.
At the time he sent the threatening messages, Cornwell was awaiting sentencing in a separate case where he was accused of threatening to blow up the San Miguel County Sheriff's Office.
“Obviously, people can’t be going around threatening to blow up public buildings and making threats to kill a peace officer,” Susan Lilly, a spokesperson for the San Miguel County Sheriff’s Office, told CPR News in a statement. “These are serious terrorist acts, and we are pleased to see Mr. Cornwall convicted in a case which could have had a very different outcome.”
Cornwell will be sentenced in Durango on April 2 and faces years in federal prison.
CPR News reached out to both the District Attorney's Office and the City of Grand Junction — both of which declined to comment.
