BELLE PLAIN, Kan.: A Kansas gamer whose online dispute with another player sparked a fatal fraud call will face a jury after breaching the terms of a diversion deal struck with prosecutors, a judge said Monday. pronounced the verdict.
U.S. District Judge Eric Melgren approved the government’s motion to reopen the trial against Shane Gaskill and set his trial for October 5.
Gaskill has been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud and other counts in connection with a series of events that occurred on December 28, 2017, which culminated in the fatal police shooting of an innocent 28-year-old man on the front porch of his family’s home Was. in Wichita.
The death of Andrew Finch drew national attention to swatting, a form of retaliation in which someone reports a false emergency to get authorities, especially a SWAT team, to land at an address.
Gaskill entered into an 18-month pre-trial diversion agreement with prosecutors in December 2019, which could have allowed the charges against him to be dropped. That agreement was extended for an additional year in December 2020 to give her more time to achieve her high school equivalency.
But prosecutors informed his defense attorney of his intention to resume prosecution in February, after the US Probation Office informed the government that Gaskill had violated the terms of his turn.
The government’s filing does not indicate how Gaskill violated those terms, but his defense attorney, Stephen Ariagno, noted in his response that Gaskill had not violated any laws and that alcohol and drugs were being used. The use of drugs was avoided. He had also submitted his apology and paid all the fees.
His lawyer argues that Gaskill, who suffers from a learning disability, struggled to learn online after the in-person program was shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic. When the program resumed this year, classes quickly filled to capacity and he was unable to start them before March 1. According to defense filings, he is now attending classes in person.
Arriagno did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the judge’s decision granting the government’s request to resume prosecution.
While they were playing the Call of Duty video game, Gaskill got into an online argument with Ohio gamer Casey Viner. Officials said Viner recruited Tyler R. Barris, who was 19 at the time, to swat Gaskill. But the address he used was out of date, leading police to Finch, who was not involved in the brawl or playing a video game.
Barris, a Los Angeles man with an online reputation for swatting, called police from Los Angeles to falsely report a shooting and kidnapping at that Wichita address. Finch was shot by police when he opened the door to see what was happening outside.
Gaskill was charged as a co-conspirator after deliberately giving Barris the same prior address and taunting him for trying to do something.
Barris is serving 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to 51 counts in April 2019. Viner received a 15-month prison sentence in September 2019, pleading guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.
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