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 David Matusiewicz, his sister Amy Gonzalez and his mother Lenore
were convicted in U.S. District Court in Delaware last July of
cyberstalking resulting in death, the first successful application
of federal law on the offense, prosecutors said. They were also
found guilty of conspiracy.
Matusiewicz and Gonzalez were sentenced to life by U.S. District
Judge Gerald McHugh on Thursday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the
District of Delaware said. Matusiewicz's mother was sentenced to
life at her bedside last week at Jefferson Medical Center in
Philadelphia, federal prosecutors said.
"This ground-breaking prosecution and investigation shows people who
actively take part in planning crimes, even though they don't pull
the trigger, will be held accountable," said Kevin Perkins, special
agent in charge of the FBI in Delaware.
On Feb. 11, 2013, David Matusiewicz and his father Thomas went to
confront David's ex-wife Christine Belford at New Castle County
Courthouse when she arrived for a child support hearing in their
custody case.
Thomas Matusiewicz then shot dead Belford and her friend Laura
Mulford in the courthouse lobby and took his own life after
exchanging gunfire with police.
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The shooting was the culmination of a four-year campaign of letters,
websites and Internet postings to "stalk, harass, and intimidate"
Belford, the mother of David Matusiewicz's three children, according
to U.S. prosecutors.
They said David Matusiewicz orchestrated the plan and recruited his
parents and sister while serving a 48-month jail term for abducting
his children and hiding out with them for 19 months in Nicaragua and
other countries.
(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Mark
Heinrich)
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