SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) – An Arkansas man who made bomb threats to a county courthouse in Missouri so his court hearing would be canceled has been sentenced to 2.5 years in federal prison without parole.

Federal prosecutors say 36-year-old Phillip Ray Robison Jr., of Hartford, Arkansas, was sentenced Wednesday for making the threats against the Cedar County Courthouse because he didn’t want to go to jail for a case in that county.

He admitted that he made three separate bomb threats on Jan. 11, 2016, which caused two evacuations of the courthouse in Stockton. He called another bomb threat into the courthouse on Jan. 25, 2016.

Prosecutors say Robison was afraid of being sent to state prison for 120 days for violating probation after a prior conviction for distribution of illegal narcotics.