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David Ryan Winters
Out Raleigh City Council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton said he had received death threats from the suspect.
A Durham, N.C., man, 38-year-old David Ryan Winters, has been charged with cyberstalking and harassing five gay men, including a member of the Raleigh, N.C., City Council.
A federal grand jury returned an indictment against Winters last week, says a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The indictment says Winters “sent electronic and text messages to the victims, and, in some cases, people close to them, attempting to intimidate and harass the victims,” according to the press release. The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges he targeted them because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The victims are named in the indictment only by their initials, but Raleigh City Council member Jonathan Lambert-Melton told TV station WRAL he was among them. He was elected to the council in 2019, the first person from the LGBTQ+ community to win a seat on the body, and he said he has been harassed by Winters ever since. He even received death threats, he said.
“When someone is aware of where you live and threatening to come to your home ... [and] suggesting I should die ... it’s really difficult,” Lambert-Melton told the station. “A very difficult experience I don’t wish upon anybody.” He said he has blocked Winters on social media, but Winters has kept setting up new accounts.
“Obviously, I feel a bit relieved,” he said of Winters’s arrest. He told WRAL the victims all appear to be gay men. Some of the harassment of other victims took place as far back as 2016, according to the indictment.
Lambert-Melton said he wants Winters to be held accountable, but he also hopes Winters gets help. Lambert-Melton planned to give a victim impact statement at Winters’s court appearance Monday.
If Winters is convicted of all charges, he could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison, according to the press release.
“Everybody has an equal right to live, work, worship, and love in America,” U.S. Attorney Michael F. Easley Jr. said in the release. “We won’t tolerate those who threaten, stalk, or use violence just because they don’t like how somebody else lives. Everybody is treated equally and fairly under the law and we won’t normalize violence and intimidation. Our Civil Rights Team is squaring off against threats and hate-fueled violence of any kind and not slowing down.”
The Raleigh and Durham Police Departments, the Wake County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are investigating the cases, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Blondel is prosecuting.
