OC man pleads guilty to stalking pro gamer online for years

LOS ANGELES - An Orange County man pleaded guilty Monday to stalking a professional online gamer for years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Evan Baltierra, 29, of Trabuco Canyon, could face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison.

Baltierra met the victim at a gaming convention in Anaheim in 2019, according to his plea agreement. After the two met, Baltierra asked the woman to meet in her hometown in Canada, which court documents say made her feel uncomfortable. The woman then blocked Baltierra across social media, starting in June 2020, according to court documents.

After that, Baltierra created hundreds of social media accounts to contact her, according to authorities, sending her threatening messages. One of those messages was sent via Twitter in January 2021, which said in part, "[t]imes ticking… waiting for the right opportunity,"

In October 2020, court documents say Baltierra hired another person through an instant messaging app to photoshop fake nude images of the victim that put her face onto pornographic images. Then from November 2020 until March 2022, Baltierra posted the photoshopped pictures to porn websites, internet forums and social media, and sent them to the gamer's friends and family,

The victim obtained a temporary restraining order against Baltierra in January 2021. After the protective order was served, Baltierra began posting the victim's personal information — including her name and city of residence, which were listed on the protective order — to social media websites and during her live streams. Baltierra would also post harassing messages during her streams, forcing her to stop streaming altogether in February 2021.

In April 2021, the two reached a settlement in which Baltierra agreed not to contact the victim, but just two months later, Baltierra called the victim’s local police department, asking them to perform a welfare check at her home, lying that she'd made threats online about suicide. During that call, court documents say, he tried to get the victim's address from the police.

Over the last several months, Baltierra sent more threatening messages to the victim through multiple social media accounts, including one message that read, "get a casket ready."

Baltierra is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 20.