Creep: Nix guilty plea Admits internet stalking of 2 women, now takes it back
To his alleged victims, he’s an internet stalker from hell, and now he’s devoted his efforts to trolling the criminal justice system.
Jason Christopher Hughes, 48, a John Milton-quoting internet troll, wants to withdraw a December 2017 guilty plea, admitting to sending creepy emails and online threats to two women, the Daily News has learned.
Hughes, whose arrest was first reported by The News, pleaded guilty to federal charges that could send him to prison for up to 10 years, but his sentencing has been delayed eight times.
Now, he wants to roll the dice in front of a jury.
“I hope the court realizes that they are being trolled too,” said artist and musician Rachel “Haywire” Marone, one of his alleged victims.
Before Hughes, who also goes by the name Raymond Johnson, made his request, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn told his sentencing judge they wanted him locked up for 18 months to prevent further harassment, and make an example out of him.
“Such a sentence will make plain that online internet harassment will simply not be tolerated,” prosecutors wrote in a June 10 memo.
Hughes’ motion has been sealed by the court, and neither he nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment.
“You’re not wanted here, go away,” said an older man who answered the door of Hughes’ Staten Island home
Hughes is free on $150,000 bail, and is under house arrest, banned from using a computer for non-work purposes, authoritiess said. On Monday, prosecutors expect to file paperwork saying they’re ready to take him to trial.
Hughes’ stalking was relentless and bizarre, according to court filings.
He knew one of his victims since the 1970s, when they were fourth-grade pen pals, then started harassing her when she broke off their increasingly unsettling correspondence.
He allegedly showed up at her college dorm, sent threatening messages to her in-laws after she got married, and tracked her down when she moved overseas with her family.
“Since YOU were the original person who inspired me to choose Evil? EVIL BE THOU MY GOOD!” he allegedly wrote in one March 2015 email, quoting a line from Satan in Milton’s “Paradise Lost.”
In another message, he sent her a link to a magazine story about the death of five children in a fire, along with information about her children, the filings showed.
He sent another woman an email describing step-by-step instructions on mutilating a human being titled, “How to Make a Your Own Pet Owl,” prosecutors said.
When Hughes entered his guilty plea, he said he was seeing a psychiatrist for major depression with psychotic features and severe post-traumatic stress disorder and was taking Ativan and Xanax. Still, he said he fully understood the proceedings, and admitted he sent emails to the two victims believing they’d see the messages as threatening.
“Taking it to trial is just a way for him to stall,” said Marone, who alleges Hughes deluged her account with hundreds of “spam comments.”