Man sentenced to prison for cyberstalking gay men since 2016
David Ryan Winters has been jailed (Getty Images | Department Of Justice)
A man from North Carolina who targeted gay men, stalked them and sent them death threats since 2016 has been sentenced to three years in federal prison.
David Ryan Winters, aged 40, was convicted on cyberstalking charges after targeting men in the Raleigh-Durham area.
The court heard that Winters himself was gay, and that he volunteered at Raleigh’s LGBT Center in 2013 and 2014.
However, the News & Observer reported that “his behavior there bothered others to the extent staff told him he could visit but no longer volunteer”.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina said that Winters was “enraged at the gay community” for rejecting him and targeted his victims by looking up personal information about them and sending them threatening messages online.
Court documents outlined how Winters went to some of his victims’ homes, sent them pictures of their houses and even threatened to kill them. He reportedly wanted to make headlines by repeating the Pulse nightclub mass shooting that took place in Orlando in 2016.
US Attorney Ellis Boyle said: “We believe in protecting all citizens who deserve to live their lives in peace. This antisocial behavior cannot fester without serious attention and prevention.
“Thanks to our dedicated law enforcement partners for taking this very seriously and putting this criminal behind bars.”
Boyle also told the court that “the evidence that the defendant selected the victims in this case because they are gay is overwhelming”.
Notably, one of Winters’ victims was out gay Raleigh City Council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton.
Speaking to WRAL News, the council member said: “I have probably pages of accounts I’ve blocked that are all him, and he just makes new ones. There were some messages that were sent to people in my network who don’t even live in North Carolina, suggesting that I should die.”
In his impact statement at Winters’ sentencing, Lambert-Melton said: “I felt like I was under a weighted blanket. The only time that weight was lifted was while he was incarcerated.”
