A Los Angeles-area man has admitted in federal court to sending hoax ransom demands while impersonating the kidnapper of Today show co-host Savannah Guthries missing mother.
According to Breitbart, 42-year-old Derrick Callella pleaded guilty to two felony counts of harassment by telecommunications device, the only criminal conviction so far linked to the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie from her Tucson, Arizona, home five months ago. Reuters reports Callella entered his plea in U.S. District Court in Tucson after previously being arrested in February and charged in the U.S. District Court of Central California with making a false ransom threat.
He was released from custody earlier this year after posting a $20,000 bond. The Reuters report states the charges carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
But the plea agreement with prosecutors calls for Callella, a resident of Hawthorne, California, to serve five years on probation, according to a U.S. Attorneys Office spokesperson. Formal sentencing was set for September 10.
The plea deal offers no new clues about what happened to Nancy Guthrie, leaving Guthries fate unknown and the underlying kidnapping case as yet unsolved. Meanwhile the search for the missing octogenarian goes on, with authorities still appealing for information from the public.
As the legal system extends leniency to a man who exploited a familys anguish, many Americans will see yet another example of a justice system that too often punishes hoaxes lightly while real victims wait for answers. President Donald Trump has threatened the alleged kidnappers with the death penalty if they do not return the 84-year-old alive, as Breitbart News reported, underscoring a tougher law-and-order approach that stands in stark contrast to the soft penalties routinely handed down in such cases.
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