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A federal judge has ordered the California man who pleaded guilty to sending phony ransom messages to the family of missing Arizona woman Nancy Guthrie to enter inpatient substance abuse treatment while awaiting sentencing, according to federal court records.
Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie, was reported missing from her Catalina Foothills home outside Tucson on Feb. 1. The following day, local media outlets received ransom demands that investigators continue to examine as potentially legitimate.
Derrick Anthony Callella, 42, was arrested days after Guthrie’s disappearance after the FBI determined he had sent fraudulent ransom messages to members of her family.
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Callella later pleaded guilty to two counts of harassment using a telecommunications device and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10 by U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker.
Federal investigators have said Callella was not responsible for an earlier ransom demand sent to local media. The FBI has said that demand remains under investigation as authorities continue investigating Guthrie’s disappearance as a kidnapping-for-ransom case.
The amended release conditions require Callella to reside at an inpatient substance-use treatment facility or halfway house, comply with all program requirements and contribute toward the cost of treatment as directed by the U.S. Pretrial Services Division.
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The order also authorizes the U.S. Marshals Service to remove Callella from the program and place him in temporary custody if he fails to comply with treatment requirements. Upon completing the program, he may reside at a home approved by the U.S. Pretrial Services Division.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona seeking additional information about why the court modified Callella’s release conditions.
According to the plea agreement, Callella admitted sending spoofed ransom messages to Guthrie’s daughter, Annie Guthrie, and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, from a spoofed phone number asking, “Did you get the bitcoin? We’re waiting on our end for the transaction[.]”
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Prosecutors said Callella later placed a brief phone call to a member of Guthrie’s family seeking information about the investigation.
Court records state investigators traced the spoofed Voice over Internet Protocol account used to send the messages to an email address registered to Callella.
After waiving his Miranda rights, Callella admitted using the account to send the texts and told investigators he had obtained the family’s contact information from a website while following television coverage of Guthrie’s disappearance. Prosecutors said he wanted to see whether the family would respond.
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Callella is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10. He faces up to two years in prison on each count, fines of up to $250,000 per count and up to one year of supervised release.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
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