Wilbur cyberstalker gets 11 years

 

Last updated 5/29/2019 at 9:23am



A Wilbur man was sentenced May 23 to over 11 years in federal prison for cyberstalking an ex-girlfriend and illegally possessing firearms.

Thomas Martin Roberts, 52, had pleaded guilty June 12, 2018, to being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possessing an unregistered firearm and cyberstalking, according to a May 23 press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

United States District Judge Rosanna Malouf Peterson sentenced Roberts to 137 months in prison, to be followed by three years of court supervision after he is released.

A press release from Joseph H. Harrington, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, detailed the case, noting that on April 19, 2015, the woman, who last dated Roberts in 2011 and had no-contact orders against him, told the Wilbur Police Department that she found two GPS tracking devices on her two vehicles, and that Roberts always seemed to know where she was.


According to a May 23 article in The Spokesman Review, “on the day she discovered the devices, the woman told police she was shopping at a Safeway in Grand Coulee when she got a text from Roberts, ‘Hey I could use a half gallon of milk while you are there. Bye bye. and I’m not going to hurt you.’”

Police removed one of the GPS devices and placed it in their station, and later that evening or in the early morning, the station was burglarized, with the GPS and a taser stolen. The second GPS device from the second vehicle had also been removed around that time.

After obtaining a state warrant to search Roberts’ residence, the press release states, investigators found and seized a Winchester, model 70, .270 caliber rifle; .223 caliber AR magazines; and multiple rounds of ammunition.

Roberts had prior convictions for second-degree assault, harassment-threat to kill, residential burglary, and first-degree burglary, and was prohibited from possessing a firearms and ammunition.

After learning that Roberts also had a room at another residence, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) obtained a warrant to search that location, finding and seizing a sawed-off shotgun and nine other firearms, 5,500 rounds of ammunition, and evidence that Roberts had purchased two portable GPS tracking devices in 2014.

Further investigation revealed that Roberts had been tracking the the woman’s vehicles and had sent her text messages indicating he knew where she was.

“This case sends a clear message that the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington and our federal, state and local law enforcement partners are firmly committed to protecting the public and aggressively pursuing individuals who engage in cyberstalking and the illegal possession of firearms and ammunition,” Harrington said.

 

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