United States of America v. Daniel Marsico

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with cyberstalking in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2261A(2)(A).



Around June 2020, the woman Daniel Marsico was dating broke up with him. For the next several years, he stalked and harassed her. He called her incessantly. He sent her—and later, her mother—thousands of text messages. When the woman locked Marsico's phone number, he used new ones and found other ways to circumvent her blocks. Marsico surveilled her, and he made sure she knew he was watching. He threatened to publish explicit photos and videos of her that he had taken without her consent, sabotage her career, invade her home, and assault her and the men she dated. Marsico fulfilled many of these threats. To name just two: He impersonated the woman online, posting some of the nonconsensual photos and giving strangers her phone number and email address so they could harass her. And he broke through her door and attacked a former boyfriend of hers who was visiting. No summary can do justice to the suffocating scope of Marsico's

campaign.



* * *



Whoever—



(1) travels in interstate or foreign commerce or is present within the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, or enters or leaves Indian country, with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, and in the course of, or as a result of, such travel or presence engages in conduct that—



(A) places that person in reasonable fear of the death of, or serious bodily injury to—



(i) that person;



(ii) an immediate family member (as defined in section 115) of that person;



(iii) a spouse or intimate partner of that person; or



(iv) the pet, service animal, emotional support animal, or horse of that person; or



(B) causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of subparagraph (A); or



(2) with the intent to kill, injure, harass, intimidate, or place under surveillance with intent to kill, injure, harass, or intimidate another person, uses the mail, any interactive computer service or electronic communication service or electronic communication system of interstate commerce, or any other facility of interstate or foreign commerce to engage in a course of conduct that—



(A) places that person in reasonable fear of the death of or serious bodily injury to a person, a pet, a service animal, an emotional support animal, or a horse described in clause (i), (ii), (iii), or (iv) of paragraph (1)(A); or



(B) causes, attempts to cause, or would be reasonably expected to cause substantial emotional distress to a person described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of paragraph (1)(A),

shall be punished as provided in section 2261(b) or section 2261B, as the case may be.

The Defendant was sentenced to 60 months in prison.



Affirmed on appeal.