E. Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California
A Wisconsin man, Kya Christian Nelson, aged 23, from Racine, has been sentenced to 44 months in federal prison due to his involvement in a "swatting" spree. This series of incidents involved accessing Ring home security cameras, orchestrating false emergency calls to prompt police responses, and streaming these events on social media, often taunting officers and victims in regions such as West Covina and Oxnard.
Nelson was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt after he admitted guilt on January 23 to charges of conspiracy and unauthorized access to a protected computer. Prior to this, he had been held in federal custody since August 2024, following a separate conviction in Kentucky.
His activity, carried out over the span of a week in November 2020, included accessing Ring devices through unlawfully acquired usernames and passwords from Yahoo! email accounts. By checking if those credentials were also linked to Ring accounts, Nelson and his associates could control the doorbell cameras, gather further information, and execute their swatting plans.
An instance on November 8, 2020, illustrates their operations. Unauthorized access to accounts of a West Covina resident led to a fabricated emergency call to local police, suggesting a violent situation inside the home. The resulting law enforcement response saw officers clearing occupants at gunpoint, with Nelson using the camera to intimidate officers and residents.
A similar event occurred on November 11, 2020, in Oxnard, wherein Nelson exploited acquired login information to create a false police emergency. Following his misleading calls, officers again conducted a risky response, which Nelson broadcasted live, taunting authorities via the Ring device.
Prosecutors in their sentencing document emphasized the serious nature of Nelson's actions, stating, "[Nelson] and his co-conspirators went on a digital crime spree, terrorizing innocent people around the country from behind their keyboards." They highlighted that while Nelson operated safely from behind his computer, his actions posed real threats to others' safety.
James Thomas Andrew McCarty, 22, of Kayenta, Arizona, another involved individual, was previously sentenced in June 2024 to seven years in prison for his contribution to these activities and other charges in Arizona. McCarty's offenses included accessing a Florida house's camera and making a false report of murder and hostage-taking, which he subsequently streamed, finding humor in the situation.
The FBI conducted the investigation, and the case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki from the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section.
