Former Washington State University student pleads guilty to extortion
A former Washington State University student could face more than two years in jail for threatening to extort multiple women while living in Pullman and the Tri-Cities area.
Kyle Gaumnitz, 24, pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of second-degree extortion in Whitman County Superior Court. One of those counts included an enhancement for sexual motivation, said Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan LeBeau.
Gaumnitz's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 4, and he faces as much as 28 months of jail time.
He was charged in March after an investigation identified him as a suspect in a case involving 29 female victims.
According to court documents, Gaumnitz allegedly used Snapchat, Tinder and text messages with fake identities to obtain naked photographs of the women, then threatened to disseminate the pictures of the women if they did not do what he said.
He then demanded the women send more photographs or videos. He threatened one woman that she needed to have sex with him to prevent him from sending out the photos and threatened another that he would kill her, as stated in court documents.
According to the certificate of probable cause, the investigation began in fall 2017 when Washington State University Police received complaints of harassment and extortion from two female WSU students.
