A Wisconsin resident has been sentenced to a federal prison term of 44 months following his involvement in a nationwide "swatting" campaign that involved unauthorized access to Ring home security cameras. The individual named Kya Christian Nelson, aged 23, from Racine, Wisconsin, engaged in this activity over the course of one week, using the cameras to livestream police responses to fabricated emergencies while also taunting officers.
Nelson was sentenced by United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt. He pled guilty earlier this year to charges including conspiracy and unauthorized access to a computer. He has been in custody since August 2024, concurrently serving a separate sentence for an unrelated case in Kentucky.
During the period from November 7 to November 13, 2020, Nelson, alongside co-conspirators, accessed Yahoo! email accounts to retrieve username and password information which they used to gain control of associated Ring accounts. These compromised accounts allowed them to manipulate Ring doorbell camera devices.
The group orchestrated bogus emergency calls to local law enforcement, prompting police responses while they streamed the incidents live. In one instance on November 8, 2020, they accessed a victim’s Ring camera in West Covina, with a hoax call leading police to respond as if there were an active shooter situation. Similarly, another incident on November 11 in Oxnard involved a call about a supposed armed situation, once again leading to a significant police response.
Prosecutors highlighted the severity of the swatting incidents in their sentencing recommendation, noting that while Nelson operated from behind a computer screen, the victims faced real danger. They further observed, "[Nelson] and his co-conspirators went on a digital crime spree, terrorizing innocent people around the country from behind their keyboards."
Another involved party, James Thomas Andrew McCarty, aged 22, from Kayenta, Arizona, received a seven-year sentence in June 2024. He admitted to participating in similar activities and was charged with additional offenses in Arizona. McCarty accessed a victim's Ring camera in Florida and made a hoax call claiming to have committed a violent crime, which he also broadcasted online.
The investigation was conducted by the FBI, with prosecution led by Assistant United States Attorney Khaldoun Shobaki of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section.