March 29 (UPI) -- Tyler Barriss, whose "swattings" of 911 and bomb threat hoax telephone calls led to the death of a Kansas man, was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Friday.
Barriss, a Los Angeles resident, pleaded guilty last fall to 51 federal charges including involuntary manslaughter.
Swatting involves phoning in a threat and urging police to respond at the location of an unsuspecting person.
Barriss was arrested in December 2017 after police in Wichita, Kan., responded to an emergency call in which Barriss reported a homicide and hostage situation at a home.
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The tenant of the house, Thomas Finch, was shot dead by a police officer after he went to his front porch to see the police activity outside. The Wichita Police Department said Finch was shot because he didn't comply with officers' orders to keep his hands up.
Prosecutors sought a 25-year sentence for Barriss, who was also sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Eric Meglren to supervision after his release, and a $5,000 payment to the Kansas Crime Victim's Compensation Fund. The prison sentence calls for 150 months for the Wichita case, 90 months for charges made by a California federal court and 30 months for phoning bomb threats to the Federal Trade Commission building and FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. The sentences will be applied consecutively.
Barriss accepted responsibility for his crimes at the sentencing Friday.
"I'm not very good at conveying feeling and emotions in spoken words. It may not sound as sincere as I want," said Barriss. "If I would have never made the phone call, [Finch] never would have lost his life."
A relative of Finch attended the sentencing hearing but did not speak.
