A 26-year-old Torrance man who was on active duty as a Marine at Camp Pendleton was sentenced to five years in federal prison this week for threatening women online unless they sent him sexual images, authorities said.
Johao Miguel Chavarri, who also went by the name “Michael Frito,” pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts of cyberstalking in May, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Ciaran McEvoy said.
He was sentenced Thursday and ordered to pay a $15,000 fine, McEvoy said.
“Perhaps most troubling is the emotional distress that [Chavarri] intentionally inflicted on his victims,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “He terrified and terrorized them. The young women feared not only for their privacy and their relationships with their friends, family, employers, and community, but also for their physical safety. They suffered, and continue to suffer, significant emotional harm.”
Using the name “Frito,” Chavarri sent threatening messages, while on active duty as a Marine at Camp Pendleton, from his hometown through social media platforms, including Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, to a number of victims from May 2019 to February 2021, McEvoy said.
Chavarri started by complimenting victims’ appearances before suggesting a relationship in which they sent him photos or videos, McEvoy said. Some of the women initially agreed.
He then used multiple online accounts to harass, threaten or extort the women when they either refused his initial offer, refused to send additional photos or stopped communicating with him, McEvoy said.
Chavarri, identifying the women by name, threatened to post photos and videos to pornography websites and send the images to their boyfriends, friends, families or employers, McEvoy said. Chavarri knew many of the victims personally.
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