Columbus man sentenced to 27 years in prison for crimes related to sexually exploiting & sextorting more than 25 identified victims

Press Release

Defendant targeted girls in his Columbus high school

COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Columbus man was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 324 months in prison for crimes related to sexually exploiting and sextorting more than 25 known victims in at least four states.

Lorenzo A. Winfield, 23, persistently and aggressively sought out and collected nude files of high school classmates and minor females he met online.

"Acts of sextortion are serious and have no place in our society. As we heard in court today from more than a dozen victims, this conduct creates significant harm," said U.S. Attorney Kenneth L. Parker. "Today's sentencing reflects that we will hold such perpetrators accountable for their damaging actions."

According to court documents, from at least 2016 until 2021, Winfield used extortion tactics to solicit and collect explicit photos of underage girls at his Columbus high school, the Arts and College Preparatory Academy (ACPA), where he was known as the "ACPA Hacker".

Winfield would contact students at ACPA and demand nude images and videos of them. He would also hack into victims' social media accounts and use the photos he obtained in their private accounts against them as leverage for more content. Winfield would threaten the victims, letting them know he had nude content depicting them or other students and that he would distribute those images and videos unless the victims complied with his demands. On numerous occasions, Winfield followed through on these threats, distributing sexually explicit photos of his victims to others to prove he was serious with his threats in a bid to contain more content. In addition, Winfield told the victims to send him sexually explicit images or videos in order to regain control of their own social media accounts.

Winfield used several social media accounts of his own to engage in the exploitation and extortion of the victims. His accounts were active across platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype and Google Hangouts.

Winfield was separately investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office for extorting and exploiting at least four victims in Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia.

For example, one identified victim was approximately 11 years old at the time Winfield first contacted her online. During their communications, Winfield obtained nude images of her and videos of her masturbating. Winfield used this content as leverage and eventually sent nude photos of the victim to students at a Virginia middle school to prove he was serious about his sextortion of her. Eventually, as the victim got older, Winfield also sent the images to students at her high school, promising the victim that if she got her friends to help her out by sending him nude images, that he would stop. Winfield threatened to harm the family of the Virginia minor if she did not comply with his requests for sexually explicit photos and videos and continued to exploit and extort her until his arrest.

Similarly, Winfield exploited at least one victim in College Station, Texas. The investigation revealed that the Texas victim sent approximately 50 pictures and videos to Winfield. Winfield demanded explicit images and videos of her daily. On one occasion, when the victim did not comply with Winfield's demands, Winfield sent images of the victim's nude breasts and vagina to the victim's brother and friend.

The defendant pleaded guilty in December 2023 to sexually exploiting minors, possessing child pornography, and communicating interstate with the intent to extort.

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Cincinnati Division, announced the sentence imposed today by U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson. U.S. Attorney Parker and Special Agent in Charge Iatarola commended the cooperative investigation in this case with FBI divisions and state and local law enforcement agencies in Ohio, Virginia and Texas. Assistant United States Attorney Emily Czerniejewski is representing the United States in this case.

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Updated August 6, 2024