LOS ANGELES (CNS) – One of two men charged with participating in a “swatting” spree that gained access to a dozen Ring home security door cameras nationwide — including one in West Covina — and placed bogus emergency phone calls designed to elicit an armed police response, then livestreamed the events on social media, is expected to plead guilty Thursday to federal charges.
Kya Christian Nelson, 23, of Racine, Wisconsin, has agreed to enter a plea to three felony charges: conspiracy and two counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Nelson and James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Charlotte, North Carolina, were each charged in December 2022 in Los Angeles federal court.
For one week in November 2020, Nelson and McCarty allegedly gained access to home security door cameras sold by Ring LLC, a home security technology company. They also acquired without authorization the username and password information for Yahoo email accounts belonging to victims throughout the United States, the indictment alleges.
In the West Covina case, Nelson and an accomplice allegedly accessed without authorization Yahoo and Ring accounts belonging to the victim. A hoax telephone call was placed to the West Covina Police Department purporting to originate from the victim’s residence and posing as a minor child reporting her parents drinking and shooting guns inside the residence, court papers allege.
Nelson allegedly also accessed without authorization a Ring doorbell camera, located at the residence of the victim’s parents and linked to the victim’s Ring account, and used it to verbally threaten and taunt West Covina Police officers who responded to the reported incident, according to the indictment.
The series of nationwide swatting incidents prompted the FBI in late 2020 to issue a public service announcement urging users of smart home devices with cameras and voice capabilities to use complex, unique passwords and enable two-factor authentication to help protect against swatting attacks.
Nelson faces up to 15 years in federal prison at sentencing, prosecutors noted.
McCarty’s case was transferred to federal court in Arizona for plea and sentence in January 2024. No further details were immediately available.
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