Up to $250,000 per count on two guilty pleas to telecommunications harassment sets Derrick Anthony Callella's maximum fine exposure at $500,000 in the federal case tied to Nancy Guthrie's disappearance. A federal judge has modified Callella's pretrial release, ordering the 42-year-old California man into inpatient substance abuse treatment while he awaits his scheduled Sept. 10 sentencing before U.S. District Judge John C. Hinderaker. The FBI's separate kidnapping-for-ransom investigation into Guthrie's disappearance from her Catalina Foothills home outside Tucson remains open.
Sentencing exposure
Callella faces up to two years in prison on each count and up to one year of supervised release, in addition to the fines. Total prison exposure across both counts: four years. He admitted sending spoofed ransom messages to Guthrie's daughter, Annie Guthrie, and son-in-law, Tommaso Cioni, using a Voice over Internet Protocol account that investigators traced to an email address registered in his name. One message asked: "Did you get the bitcoin? We're waiting on our end for the transaction." After waiving his Miranda rights, Callella told investigators he obtained the family's contact information from a website while following television coverage of the case, and said he wanted to see whether the family would respond.
Modified release conditions
The court's amended order requires Callella to reside at an inpatient substance use treatment facility or halfway house and comply with all program requirements. He must contribute toward the cost of treatment as directed by the U.S. Pretrial Services Division. The U.S. Marshals Service is authorized to remove him from the program and place him in temporary custody if he fails to comply. Upon completing the program, Callella may reside at a home approved by U.S. Pretrial Services.
The parallel ransom investigation
Callella's two counts address only the spoofed messages he sent directly to Guthrie's family, not a separate ransom demand that went to local media the day after Nancy Guthrie's February 1 disappearance. The FBI has confirmed Callella was not responsible for that earlier demand. Authorities continue to investigate the disappearance as a kidnapping-for-ransom case; Nancy Guthrie, 84, is the mother of "Today" co-host Savannah Guthrie. No arrest has been made in connection with the earlier demand, which remains under FBI investigation.