PHILADELPHIA — As U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh prepared to sentence Mark Anthony Tucci for hurling racist, violent threats at two Black women he’d never met, the judge paused for a moment and teared up.

Tucci’s vile language and promises to harm the women were not only criminally inexcusable, McHugh said, they were also a demonstration of “deeply hateful attitudes” that cannot be tolerated in society.

“It was meant to deny their dignity and their humanity,” McHugh said. “And that’s what makes it so troublesome.”

McHugh offered those remarks before sentencing Tucci on Tuesday to 33 months in federal prison and ordering him to pay nearly $17,000 in restitution. Tucci had pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges including threat to use a dangerous weapon, interfering with federally protected activities, and interstate communication of threats.

U.S. Attorney David Metcalf said in a statement that the case was an example of the criminal justice system holding someone accountable for language that was both disturbing and a violation of the victims’ civil rights.

“Every citizen is entitled to a peace and security undisturbed by the abhorrent and racist threats that took place in this case, full stop,” he said.

Tucci’s crimes took place last year in two separate incidents: First when Tucci, who is white, pulled up next to a Black woman driving on I-95, rolled down his window, and threatened to kill her, court documents said. The second episode happened when he repeatedly harassed a Black employee of the city’s Department of Human Services who’d been assigned to an investigation involving Tucci’s daughter.

In both instances, court documents said, Tucci used racial slurs and made bigoted, demeaning comments that played on offensive racial stereotypes. Prosecutors said he also threatened to harm both women — telling the driver on I-95 that he would kill her and throwing a coffee cup at her car, and, in the case of the DHS worker, finding her home address and cellphone number to continue his racist harassment.

As prosecutor Samuel Kuhn, of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, outlined those facts during Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, Tucci repeatedly put his face in his hands, shaking and bowing his head.

He later addressed McHugh, saying he was embarrassed and ashamed, and that his actions were inexcusable. At the time of the crimes, he said, he’d been suffering from undiagnosed mental health issues. He said he’s since been receiving treatment, and that his medications have helped him understand his past misdeeds.

Authorities initially said Tucci had boasted during one of the episodes about his association with the far-right Proud Boys group, and his lawyer said in court documents that the group “clearly influenced” him. But there was no discussion of the group or Tucci’s politics during his sentencing hearing.

Several of his relatives, including his mother and brother, testified and said they had seen his mental health improve over the past several months while receiving treatment in custody.

Tucci, for his part, said he wished he could have apologized to his victims, neither of whom attended the proceeding. Kuhn, the prosecutor, read statements on their behalf. In one of them, the motorist Tucci threatened said she still experiences anxiety as a result of the attack, particularly while driving.

“People who look like me have a right to live safely and freely,” she wrote.

Tucci said he agreed, and lamented that there was “nothing I can do to make it right.”

“I’m forever pegged as a racist because I said things that were racist,” he said.

As Tucci stood to leave the courtroom at the end of the hearing, McHugh, the judge, told him: “Your future is in your hands now.”

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