Five months after Nancy Guthrie disappeared from her Tucson-area home, a California man has pleaded guilty to making a fake ransom demand to her family.
This morning at the Tucson Federal Court, Derrick Callella pleaded guilty to 2 counts of telephonic harassment. His plea deal calls for 5 years of probation for each count, to be served at the same time — 5 years total.
Callella's sentencing is not official until a formal September hearing, but he has been ordered into residential drug treatment immediately. Agreeing to plead guilty saves Callella from up to 2 years of prison time and fines as high as $250,000.
Federal charges say Callella sent the Guthrie family 2 text messages and made a phone call shortly after the family posted a public message about the disappearance.
"We need to know, without a doubt that she's alive and that you have her. We want to hear from you and we are ready to listen," the family said.
One of Callella's messages read:
"Did you get the Bitcoin were waiting on our end for the transaction."
Callella admitted he found Guthrie family contacts on the Internet and used them after hearing about the disappearance and a ransom demand. Charges say he hid his real phone number to make the texts appear to come from a different number, but agents tracked him down anyway.
The charges say the 2 texts from Callella had no real connection to a bitcoin ransom note media outlets received the Monday after Nancy Guthrie disappeared. No arrest has been made in her disappearance, which has generated thousands of tips.
In court, Callella admitted he broke his bond requirements by taking drugs as recently as 4 days before the hearing. He and the attorneys agreed he was not too impaired to make a clear-headed decision to plead guilty.
Nancy Guthrie is the mother of NBC Today Show anchor Savannah Guthrie.
