An 20-year-old man who was charged in the swatting death of 60-year-old Mark Herring in a dispute over the victim's valuable Twitter handle was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday.
Shane Sonderman pleaded guilty of conspiring to send police to Herring's home with a false report of an alleged murder in April, 2020, when Sonderman was 18, leading to Herring's death of a heart attack. Both men were Tennessee residents.
The 'swatting' prank, in which people call police on a innocent person with bogus reports of a crime, was an escalation of a dispute Sonderman had over Herring's Twitter handle @Tennessee, which Herring claimed he secured when he joined the social media network shortly after its inception.
Mark Herring, 60, was the victim of 'swatting,' the act of prank calling the police on an innocent person with false claims that they have committed a serious crime, and died of a heart attack as a result. Shane Sonderman was sentenced to five years in prison Wednesday for his role in the prank
Herring was targeted by Shane Sonderman over his Twitter handle @Tennessee, which Herring claimed when he joined the social media site
Federal Judge Mark Norris said despite Herring's death as a result of the extortion scheme, five years was the maximum Sonderman could receive under sentencing guidelines, according to Krebs On Security.
'Although it may seem inadequate, the law is the law,' Norris said. 'The harm it caused, the death and destruction….it's almost unspeakable. This is not like cases we frequently have that involve guns and carjacking and drugs. This is a whole different level of insidious criminal behavior here.'
Sonderman and another associate in the UK, who were both minors at the time, concocted an elaborate prank to extort Herring in a bid to obtain the @Tennessee handle.
His daughter Corrina Fitch told myhighplains.com that Herring originally picked the handle @Tennessee because he loves the Volunteers, the University of Tennessee football team.
His daughter Corrina Fitch (pictured) said that Herring originally picked the handle @Tennessee due to his love of the Vols, the University of Tennessee football team
Herring was well aware he had a special internet property and would often brag about the many offers he would get for it to his kids.
'He would just in passing say, I got another offer on my Twitter handle today,' Fitch said.
But Herring was not willing to sell the handle, leading to the dispute with Sonderman that started in March, 2020 and led to Herring's death a month later.
Prosecutors had explained in court that Sonderman would work with co-conspirators online to publish the personal information of their victims, and call and text them and their family members as well as sending pizza
