A 39-year-old Greenville man is facing felony charges after warrants accused him of threatening to expose a private image of a woman unless she paid him money, then escalating with threats of violence against her, her brother and her home. Timmy Jermain Andrews was arrested Saturday in connection with an incident that allegedly took place in December 2025.
According to WCTI, warrants accuse Andrews of threatening to disclose a private image of the alleged victim in order to compel her to give him money. The warrants were issued on September 10, months after the alleged incident reportedly occurred. Andrews was arrested by the Greenville Police Department days later, on October 10.
The allegations against Andrews go beyond the alleged image threat. Warrants accuse him of threatening to have the victim shot, to have her brother stabbed, to damage her residence, to have her killed and to knock out her teeth, per the same WCTI report. Based on those accusations, Andrews is now charged with felony sexual extortion of an adult and felony extortion.
Conflicting Reports on Where Andrews Is Being Held
Local television stations have offered differing accounts of where Andrews is currently being held. WCTI reported that he remains in the Pitt County Jail without bond, while WITN reported that Andrews was taken to the Lenoir County Jail. The discrepancy between the two outlets' reporting has not been resolved.
WITN also reported that Andrews has prior convictions for extortion dating back to 2021, though that detail has not been independently verified beyond the station's reporting. The outlet's account otherwise lines up with the broader timeline: Andrews was arrested by Greenville police on Saturday for an incident that occurred in December.
What North Carolina Law Says About Sexual Extortion
Under state law, a person commits sexual extortion if they intentionally threaten to disclose a private image, or refuse to delete, remove or retract a previously disclosed private image, in order to compel a victim or an immediate family member to act or refrain from acting against their will, with the intent to obtain additional images, money or another benefit, according to North Carolina General Statute 14-202.7. The allegations against Andrews track closely with that legal definition.
The case arrives as North Carolina officials have been sounding alarms over a sharp rise in extortion and internet-crime cases statewide. The North Carolina Department of Justice warned state leaders in September that cases of fraud and extortion, driven in large part by advancing technology, are climbing across the state, according to WRAL. Between 2020 and 2024, cases of fraud, embezzlement and extortion rose statewide, with extortion specifically climbing 108 percent in that span, the outlet reported.
The financial toll has grown just as fast. North Carolina residents reported a record $432 million in losses tied to internet crimes in 2025 through the FBI's IC3 portal, a 372 percent jump from 2021, per WRAL's reporting. The same report identified men younger than 30 as the fastest-growing victim demographic for extortion schemes.
Greenville's case is not the only one of its kind surfacing in the state recently. In Catawba County, a 22-year-old man named Brandon Samuel Petritch was arrested by the Catawba County Sheriff's Office and is facing an extortion charge, according to a report from WHKY.
