FRESNO, Calif. — A Fresno man faces federal charges after he was arrested last week by the FBI on allegations that for months he harassed a dad whose daughter was slain in the 2018 mass shooting at a Parkland, Florida, high school.
According to a federal complaint in a Florida court first reported by the Daily Beast, James Catalano, 61, is charged with one count of cyberstalking for sending more than 200 messages between Dec. 1, 2021, and July 20 of this year to Fred Guttenberg. Guttenberg is a gun control advocate whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was one of 17 people shot to death at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland.
James Catalano was in the Fresno County Jail Friday night on a federal marshal hold.
Catalano is described in the court documents as affiliated with J-C Markets, Inc., a Fresno company. He was a frequent letter-writer to The Fresno Bee, years ago on generally conservative topics. FBI agents state that on June 29 he wrote, “God Bless President Trump. (expletive) joe biden.”
In the court documents, FBI agents state that Catalano confessed to sending the messages.
The alleged victim in the case is only identified by initials in the court documents, but Guttenberg confirmed to the Daily Beast that he was the target.
The messages were sent to Guttenberg’s website and forwarded to his email. Federal agents were able to trace the messages back to Catalano’s home and to his real estate business.
According to the complaint, Catalano mocked the death of Guttenberg’s daughter, said she was “rotting in hell,” and disparaged the 14-year-old with racist and sexist insults.
“We are having a party every night of this Parkland trial,” said one message. “So glad to celebrate blood and death.”
The complaint indicated the messages became more vicious in June, with Catalano joking that Guttenberg’s daughter may have been sexually abused by family members.
In a June 24, message Catalano celebrated receiving his concealed weapons permit and said he wished Guttenberg’s daughter “was alive so I could show it to her. But damn ... she got slaughtered and is now in hell. CELEBRATE.”
Nikolas Cruz, 23, pleaded guilty in October to 17 counts of first-degree murder. A jury is now deciding if he should be sentenced to death or life without parole for the nation’s deadliest mass shooting to go before a jury.
Efforts to reach Catalano’s attorney, Jeffrey T. Hammerschmidt, were unsuccessful.
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