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Wisconsin man pleaded guilty to week-long swatting spree at homes in California he livestreamed

KEYT

LOS ANGELES, Calif. – Kya Christian Nelson, 23, of Racine, Wisconsin, pled guilty to three charged counts in connection with a swatting spree that he livestreamed on social media using illegally accessed ring cameras that he also used to taunt responding officers.

The week-long swatting, or fake emergency calls intended to trigger a law enforcement response, spree included homes in West Covina and Oxnard detailed the Department of Justice in a press release about the conviction.

Nelson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information stated the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California.

"Swatting puts innocent lives in danger," said Acting United States Attorney Joseph T. McNally. "Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that individuals who engage in this dangerous conduct will be held accountable through federal prosecutions."

According to Nelson's plea agreement, from Nov. 7, 2020, to Nov. 13, 2020, Nelson and co-conspirators gained access to the usernames and passwords for Yahoo! email accounts of people across the United States without permission.

Next, the conspirators determine which of those emails had Ring accounts that allowed access to the internet-connected doorbell cameras detailed the Department of Justice.

Using that information, the conspirators then placed fake emergency reports or telephone calls to local law enforcement trying to elicit an emergency response with the intent of transmitting the audio and video from the Ring doorbell cameras to social media explained the Department of Justice.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, conspirators also taunted responding officers and victims through the Ring devices audio feature during several of the incidents.

For example, on Nov. 11, Nelson was illegally in possession of the Yahoo! email and Ring device login credentials of a person living in Oxnard and he used those credentials to access the victims Ring account without permission shared the Department of Justice.

Nelson and a co-conspirator made a hoax call to the Oxnard Police Department by claiming to be a child whose father had a handgun inside of the home associated with the compromised Ring device explained the Department of Justice.

Officers with the Oxnard Police Department were dispatched to the call and cleared the residents from the home at gunpoint stated the Department of Justice.

According to the Department of Justice, Nelson then used the compromised Ring camera to threaten and taunt responding Oxnard Police Officers.

Currently, Nelson is incarcerated in a Kentucky state prison after he was convicted in an unrelated case and has been in federal custody since August of 2024 shared the Department of Justice.

Nelson is scheduled for a sentencing hearing on May 1 of this year where he faces a maximum five years in federal prison sentence for each charged count added the Department of Justice.

"The defendant’s malicious actions traumatized his victims and put their lives – and the lives of responding officers – at risk," said Akil Davis, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Los Angeles Field Office. "Swatting hoaxes drain crucial law enforcement resources at the expense of taxpayers and diverts police officers from responding to actual crisis situations. This case is a good reminder for security doorbell users that it's important to practice strict cyber hygiene by using difficult passwords and by employing two-factor authentication."

One of the co-conspirators, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Kayenta, Arizona was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for both his role in these California incidents as well as additional charges in Arizona detailed the Department of Justice.

McCarty also admitted to illegally accessing a Florida victim's Ring camera and making a call to North Port Florida Police Department claiming to be the victim's husband who had just killed her, was holding a hostage, and had rigged explosives at the residence stated the Department of Justice.

According to the Department of Justice, McCarty then livestreamed the law enforcement response and posting a message on social media taking credit for the successful swatting stating that, "he thought it was amusing".

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Andrew Gillies

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