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The last defendant in a nationwide "swatting" conspiracy with ties to Fort Worth and Alvarado has been sentenced to prison, officials said.
Carlton Nalley, 35, formerly of Alexandria, Va., was given a nine-year prison sentence Friday in a Dallas federal courtroom, with U.S. District Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn presiding.The sentencing was described in a news release from U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks of the Northern District of Texas.Nalley and several other conspirators were caught making prank calls intended to falsely alert the police and SWAT teams in the Johnson County city of Alvarado and in Fort Worth on unsuspecting victims.In June, co-defendants, Matthew Weigman, 19, was sentenced to 11 years in prison, while Sean Paul Benton, 25, received an 18-month sentence. Nalley, a former resident of Alexandria, failed to appear as ordered for that sentencing and was arrested the next month in Maryland, Jacks said in the news release.But Nalley, also known as "Madison," had pleaded guilty to joining fellow pranksters to use computers and "spoof cards" to complete the gags while concealing their identities, according to court records.In June 2006, the records show, members of Nalley's party line chat group tried to "swat" a fellow member and that person's family in Alvarado.During the gag, a conspirator made a bogus call to police, claiming that he killed family members and was holding hostages. The same thing was done a few months later with a call to Fort Worth police, according to court records."Both the June and October swatting calls caused a SWAT response," Jacks said.The pranksters also used spoof cards to pose as other people and to arrange telephone services that the people did not order.They also figured out how to get access to telephone company computers to set up free phone services for themselves or "terminate the telephone service of individuals they did not like," Jacks said.The group also conspired to get credit cards belonging to the U.S. military.Nalley, according to records, helped Weigman harass a fraud investigator for Verizon Wireless who was working with the FBI on the case.Jacks said in the news release that the conspirators "spoofed phone calls from the fraud investigator's office telephone number to Nalley's home phone number to give the appearance of harassing calls from the investigator to Nalley."They also called "Verizon to lodge a complaint against the investigator and Nalley accused him of harassing him and misconduct ... in an attempt to get Verizon to terminate his employment,'' Jacks said.Bill Miller, 817-390-7684
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