A Texas man was given a jail sentence on Monday after he pleaded responsible to costs associated to stalking Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark.
Michael Lewis, a 55-year-old man from Denton, Texas, reached a take care of prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, on Monday through which he pleaded responsible to at least one felony rely of stalking and one misdemeanor rely of harassment. Lewis was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail and can get credit score for time served since his arrest in January, according to various news reports.
Lewis was arrested on Jan. 12 after an investigation decided that he despatched messages to Clark on social media from Dec. 16 by means of Jan. 11, a few of which have been sexually violent in nature.
In a single message to Clark, Lewis mentioned he had been driving by the previous No. 1 total decide’s home in Indiana 3 times a day. Lewis instructed Clark in one other message that he was planning to purchase tickets to a Fever sport and could be “sitting behind the bench.”
Different messages that weren’t made public included “threats and sexually express” content material, in accordance with prosecutors.
FBI brokers traced a few of Lewis’ messages and situated him at a resort in downtown Indianapolis. When questioned, he instructed police he was in “an imaginary relationship” with Clark and that the messages have been a “joke.” The messages continued after police warned Lewis to cease, at which level he was arrested and charged.
In response to WTHR, Lewis’s listening to on Monday became contentious at times. Lewis instructed the courtroom earlier than his sentencing that he desires Clark to be protected and that he “by no means threatened her.” He additionally claimed his conduct was an try to boost considerations about safety points that Clark had.
The choose warned Lewis’s authorized counsel that Lewis was “going to speak himself out of a plea,” as a part of the phrases concerned accepting accountability. The plea deal was ultimately accepted, and Lewis was sentenced.
Clark has averaged 16.5 factors, 8.8 assists and 5.0 rebounds per sport throughout 13 contests this season. She has not performed since July 15 on account of a groin harm.
!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)
{if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?
n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};
if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version=’2.0′;
n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;
t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];
s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window, document,’script’,
‘https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js’);
fbq(‘init’, ‘1324276914788316’);
fbq(‘track’, ‘PageView’);