Ceres Man Sentenced for Cyberstalking Two Victims

FRESNO, Calif. — Kevin James Strutz, 52, of Ceres, was sentenced today to three years and four months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for cyberstalking, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced. In addition, Strutz was ordered to pay $1773 in restitution.

According to court documents, Strutz secretly made a video recording of an adult female who stayed as an Airbnb tenant at the residence where Strutz was living in Ceres in February 2020. The victim ended her stay at the residence when she discovered a message on a cellphone that Strutz had left in a shared bathroom. Over the next several months, Strutz continued to contact the victim through multiple Facebook accounts. The messages became increasingly aggressive, and one included an image of the victim exiting a shower at the Airbnb residence that had been taken without her knowledge or consent. Strutz sent the image to her with a demand that she send him a sexually explicit video or he would send the photo to her friends and family.

Investigators later learned that between September 2018 and December 2018, Strutz had also sent a series of electronic messages and handwritten letters to a second female victim. Strutz left 15 handwritten letters on the victim’s vehicle, many of which contained threats designed to coerce the victim into engaging in sexual acts with Strutz. He also sent messages to the victim from five different Facebook accounts and attempted to contact the victim using phone calls and messages.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with assistance from the Ceres Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Gappa prosecuted the case.