A Los Angeles-area man pleaded guilty Thursday to felony harassment charges for sending fake ransom notes while posing as a kidnapper of Today show co-host Savannah Guthrie’s missing mother.
Reuters reports Derrick Callella, 42, pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of harassment by telecommunications device, marking the only criminal conviction to date stemming from the disappearance of 84-year-old Nancy Guthrie from her home in Tucson, Arizona, five months ago.
The guilty man was arrested back in February and charged with making a false ransom threat in the U.S. District Court of Central California.
He was released from custody after posting a $20,000 bond.
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The Reuters report states the charges carry a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
But the plea agreement with prosecutors calls for Callella, a resident of Hawthorne, California, to serve five years on probation, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson. Formal sentencing was set for September 10.
The plea deal, entered in U.S. District Court in Tucson, leaves Guthrie’s fate unknown and the underlying kidnapping case as yet unsolved.
Meanwhile the search for the missing octogenarian goes on.
President Donald Trump has threatened the alleged kidnappers with the death penalty if they do not return the 84-year-old alive, as Breitbart News reported.