COLUMBUS – A judge sentenced a Minnesota man to four years in prison for threatening to post nude photos of an Ohio State University student from her stolen laptop computer unless she paid him $3,000.
Demonte Johntrell Latimore, of St. Paul, apologized in court Wednesday, saying he “thought it was a victimless crime because it was over the Internet.”
Federal prosecutors say Latimore, 27, received the laptop after it was stolen from the woman in December 2011.
According to court documents, a few weeks after the laptop was reported stolen from a campus library in Newark, the victim received an email from an unknown subject using the email address “iwant300dollars” that indicated that the sender had something the victim wanted back “very badly” and commented that the victim “had a lovely body.”
Authorities say Latimore found explicit photos and a video of the victim in a password protected folder and sent one of the photos was to the woman with a demand for $3,000 or he would send all of the photos and video to everyone in her address book and “every porn site available.”
Latimore created a Facebook account, “Payme ForSilence” and eventually posted a number of nude pictures and sex video of the woman and her boyfriend, prosecutors said.
The FBI got the Facebook account closed but authorities say Latimore “and possibly others” continued to harass the victim via email, demanding money to prevent his wider distribution of the material.
Latimore pleaded guilty in July to one count of the computer extortion involving the confidential pictures and video. He’s already serving federal prison time in an unrelated gun case.