Troll jailed for 5 years after swatting of Twitter handle owner ends in death
- Reference: 1626930672
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/22/qwk_swatting_death/
- Source link:
Shane Sonderman, of Lauderdale County, Tennessee, wanted the username @Tennessee that had been registered on Twitter years prior by Mark "Sparky" Herring, 60, of Bethpage, Tennessee. Herring is known to bulletin-board users as the [1]inventor of the widely used offline mail reader format [2]QWK .
Herring had refused to give up his Twitter handle to Sonderman, who had recruited a group of online friends to harass the man. The gang of miscreants found Herring’s home phone number, repeatedly sending him unwanted pizzas, and on April 27 last year, made a call to law enforcement, falsely claiming Herring had killed a woman and set up booby-trap bombs at his home, which sent cops rushing to the man's door. It was alleged someone with a British accent made the actual 911 call.
[3]
Herring grabbed a firearm fearing there were trespassers on his property, but dropped it when he realized there police officers at his home.
[4]
[5]
"He went out the house with a gun, because he heard someone was on his property," Corinna Fitch, Herring's daughter, [6]said . "He sees all these cops around him, and they ask if he is Mark Herring, 'put your hands up,' so he tosses the gun away from him to show he's not a threat, and [put his] hands up."
At that moment, Herring suffered a massive fatal heart attack. He was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. "He was scared to death and that is what caused this heart attack," his relatives said.
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Sonderman, who was a minor at the time of the swoop and has since turned 18, was collared the next month, and pleaded guilty in March to a federal charge of conspiracy.
Sending armed cops to someone’s house for harassment purposes is known as swatting, and it's not the first time it has led to a death. In 2017, Andrew Finch was killed by police after being [8]ultimately swatted by Tyler Barriss in a row over the computer game Call of Duty. Barriss [9]was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
[10]Scumbag who phoned in a Call of Duty 'swatting' that ended in death pleads guilty to dozens of criminal charges
[11]Trio indicted after police SWAT prank call leads to cops killing bloke
[12]Facebooker swatted, Kaspersky snares an NSA thief, NASA server exposed, and more
[13]US 'swatting' Bill will jail crank callers for five years to life
We're told Sonderman scoured the internet looking for interesting and desirable usernames on social networks, from Instagram to Twitter, and pressured people to hand over those accounts.
The goal was to obtain the usernames and then sell them to others for a profit, and the teenager conspired with others on Discord to target their victims, according to an indictment
[14]PDF
filed in a federal district court in Tennessee last year. It is said he ordered a fire truck to the home of a girl whose Instagram handle he wanted, and sent her a follow-up text message that read: “did your parent’s (sic) enjoy the firetrucks?”On Wednesday this week, US District Judge Mark Norris [15]sentenced Sonderman to 60 months behind bars. ®
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[1] https://twitter.com/textfiles/status/1417941046781259782?s=21
[2] http://wiki.synchro.net/history:museum:qwk
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YPlButos60B3AeB2I8g1EwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPlButos60B3AeB2I8g1EwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YPlButos60B3AeB2I8g1EwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y477EWDm6w
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPlButos60B3AeB2I8g1EwAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/14/call_of_duty_swatting_tyler_barriss/
[9] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/serial-swatter-tyler-barriss-sentenced-20-years-death-kansas-man-n978291
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2018/11/14/call_of_duty_swatting_tyler_barriss/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2018/05/24/swatting_death_indictment/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2019/01/12/security_roundup/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2015/11/20/us_swatting_hoax_act/
[14] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/07/22/sonderman.pdf
[15] https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2021/07/21/swatting-death-over-tennessee-twitter-nickname-brings-60-months-prison/8048489002/
[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I'm getting to the point of imagining it is their arms that need to be shorter. How's that for a 'nick'?
If he wasn't a minor when the offence was committed, then I'd 100% agree 5 years is too short for basically amounted to ordering a contract killing.
As he was... I'm struggling to feel what the appropriate amount of time is - it feels too short at a gut level, but he's age being under the responsibility threshold should count towards some mitigation
either way, he's a pretty scummy person, and I'm sure this will follow and marr him through life so... natural justice, I guess?
The sentence should've been the electric chair
As this piece of shit is obviously going to remain a danger to society, possibly even from behind bars if his internet access isn't completely cut.
Sentence should have been far longer
5 years wasn’t enough for the sustained continued campaign against multiple people.
Re: Sentence should have been far longer
According to a Brain Krebs post[1], 60 months was the longest sentence the judge could impose by law while pointing that he definitely deserved more
[1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/07/serial-swatter-who-caused-death-gets-five-years-in-prison/
Re: Sentence should have been far longer
Well, since it's a federal conviction, there is no chance for parole, so it will be ALL five years. The exception is they can earn a reduced sentence from good behavior.
Not to mention a felony conviction. Which will fuck up the rest of his life.
Re: Sentence should have been far longer
5 years of being sold around the jail for sexual services should do the trick I think.
If the screws could lose the key to this human stains cell that'll be great
After harrassing someone to death and intimidating others, this arsehole gets a five year, live in Master's degree course in scumbaggery.
He will only be in his twenties when he comes out and more likely than not, have a full lifetime of recidavism to look forward to.
And people say 'there is no justice'....... They're right!
re: And people say 'there is no justice'....... They're right!
Well I'd certainly take the opinion of a random internet poster over whatever the so-called "Judge" might have handed down. Surely all the detail we need is in the report we just read?
Why do we even bother with trials? We could just have a survey underneath a news report. Soon as we get 12 guilty clicks, job done!
Cancel Culture and Doxxing..
Some people refuse to believe that they actually exist or that they cause any harm.....mmmmhhhhh
Re: Cancel Culture and Doxxing..
Where the fuck did "Cancel culture" come from in that?
I understand people are outraged at GB News cancelling Guto Harri for not being racist enough but it's not really related to this story.
Re: Cancel Culture and Doxxing..
I have to laugh at "conservatives" whining about cancel culture when they are running everyone out of their party that won't bow down to Herr Trump and go along with his election lies.
QWK
Fittingly enough I'd read about his death on my daily BBS login into dovenet, of course using QWK
no way for anyone to be treated at all, social media has created a generation of children screaming "i want"
" It was alleged someone with a British accent made the actual 911 call."
Was bemused why this detail was included in such dramatic fashion. Is this the penchant for casting all criminal baddies in the world as being Eurotrash ? BTW it would be much more convincing if they'd said an English accent, or Welsh accent for instance. Accents of the British Isles are so diverse, calling someone's accent British makes little sense.
Accents of the British Isles are so diverse, calling someone's accent British makes little sense.
I do agree, but we do say "American accent" which is a hell of a lot bigger than old blighty so we're probably the worst offenders
@niksgarage
Why the perp attempted an accent, I can't guess. I suppose that the report said "British" because the person taking the call was a 911 operator, not a successor to Henry Higgins. The American ear used to be pretty bad when it came to distinguishing accents from Great Britain. It could be that all those years of BBC comedies have improved that ear, but apparently not universally.
Good riddance but the sentence should have been longer.