A Simi Valley man, identified as Jason Anthony Arnold, has been nailed by a jury for a disturbing case of stalking and extortion involving his ex-girlfriend, the Ventura County District Attorney's office divulged. Arnold, with a date of birth logged as July 19, 1971, was found guilty of one count of felony stalking, one count of felony extortion by threatening letter, and three counts of distributing private intimate photos, with his sentencing slated on April 25, according to the Ventura County District Attorney.
The shove into the limelight began after a failed romance when Arnold took a twisted turn to the sinister, hounding his former flame relentlessly from November 2019 through March 2020, in a harrowing frenzy he demanded a whopping $54,000 and when she refused to cough up, he went ballistic releasing nude photos of her—flinging them to family members, her new beau, and plastering them around her workplace and the boyfriend's living quarters, adding injury to insult, he advertised her for sex along with her sensitive personal details. Despite the victim securing a restraining order this didn't brake Arnold’s harassing barrage of texts and emails.
Ventura Deputy DA Tessa McCarty, steering the helm at the DA's Domestic Violence Unit, did the heavy lifting in court and set forth the egregiousness of Arnold's actions. In a statement obtained by the Ventura County District Attorney's office, McCarty articulated, “The victim was subjected to the defendant’s obsessive and vindictive stalking behavior for far too long,” spearheading a clear message that such abominable acts come with their due weight in justice's scale. "I hope that these convictions provide her with the closure she deserves," in a statement obtained by the Ventura County District Attorney.
Now, Arnold broods behind bars at the Ventura County Jail, pending the approach of his sentencing date in courtroom 27 of the Ventura County Superior Court, where he faces a maximum three-year and eight-month lock-up. The victim's ordeal, at last catching a glimpse of the closure horizon said McCarty, emboldened by the hope that justice provides fallen spirits a prospect to rebuild away from the shadow of terror that once loomed like a monstrous vulture over their joy, their freedom, their life.
