A 22-year-old man from Santa Ana, California, has been sentenced to a little over five years in prison for sending threatening messages, including kidnapping warnings, to families who lost children during the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting in Parkland, Florida.
According to a press release by the Southern District of Florida, the man sent threatening messages to the family members of deceased victims during the 2018 holiday season. The man was arrested in January 2019, and formally charged with interstate transmission of a threat to kidnap as well as interstate cyberstalking.
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that seemed to show the man was obsessed with mass murderers, including sending the families of victims threatening messages from Instagram accounts named after serial killer Ted Bundy and the Parkland shooter.
The press release also notes that investigators discovered “thousands of saved images of Ted Bundy, images of the targeted victims, and saved screenshots of the messages that he had sent the victims.”
Some of the messages the man sent to victims included “I’m your abductor I’m kidnapping you fool,” “with the power of my AR-15, you all die,” and “with the power of my AR-15, I take your loved ones away from you PERMANENTLY.”
In a statement posted to Twitter, Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter was murdered in the Parkland shooting, hailed the prison sentence as a win for victims.
“Today, the individual who targeted and harassed my family and other Parkland families has been sentenced to 66 months in prison,” said Guttenberg. “This is a precedent setting case that will give the FBI and DOJ additional tools to prosecute harassment going forward.”
Today, the individual who targeted and harassed my family and other Parkland families has been sentenced to 66 months in prison. This is a precedent setting case that will give the FBI and DOJ additional tools to prosecute harassment going forward.https://t.co/3QNw68LKOk
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) March 2, 2020
According to the New York Daily News, authorities said that the cyberstalker also posted the following message to an Instagram account less than a year after the death of Guttenberg’s daughter, Jaime: “I took Jaime away from you. You’ll never see her again hahaha.”
As a result of the constant threats, U.S. Attorney Ajay Alexander said in court filings that the man’s victims “lived in constant fear that the individual bombarding them” would try and harm them, reports Fox News.
“The victims deserve justice. They deserve to live in peace and with the belief that they are safe and secure,” Alexander said in the court filings, reports the news agency.
According to the Miami Herald, the perpetrator was stalking the victims’ families for a while, but waited until the holiday season to target them.
“He was stalking them every step of the way,” said Alexander, reports the news agency. “But he waited until Christmas when they were at their most vulnerable. He wanted them to feel fear. He wanted them to feel vulnerable.”
During the hearing, the man’s father pleaded with the judge for a lenient sentence, arguing that “he is not violent in any way, shape or form,” reports the news agency.
According to Fox News, the defense attorney argued that the man had mental issues that should be considered during sentencing.
“I think that it’s a high sentence given (the man’s) background and other similarly situated cases, but I believe that the judge felt the need to have the sentence send a message to others that are out there on the Internet doing this bad behavior,” said the man’s defense attorney.