Man to serve over 25 years for sextorting 25 girls, including at Columbus high school

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A man will serve the maximum sentence within a plea deal for crimes related to sexually exploiting and sextorting more than 25 victims in at least four states, including girls at a Columbus high school.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Southern District of Ohio, Lorenzo Winfield, 23, was sentenced to 27 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to possession, distribution and receipt of child pornography as well as extortion for interstate commerce.

The U.S. District Court’s ruling comes after Winfield pleaded guilty in December. Charges of sexual exploitation of a minor and coercion and enticement of a minor were not included in the plea deal, which included a possible incarceration sentence of 23 to 27 years.

Winfield sought out and collected nude photos and files of high school classmates and minor females he met online. According to court documents, from at least 2016 until 2021, Winfield used extortion tactics to solicit and collect explicit photos of underage girls at his Columbus high school, the Arts and College Preparatory Academy (ACPA), where he was known as the “ACPA Hacker.”

Winfield would contact students at the school and demand nude photos of them, sometimes hacking into the victims’ social media accounts and using the photos he obtained against them. He would also extort the victims by having them send him sexually explicit content to regain control of their social media accounts, the news release said.

He would then tell the victims he had nude photos of them or other students and would distribute them to friends and family unless the victims complied. Winfield followed through with his threats, distributing the sexually explicit photos of his victims to others.

Winfield used accounts on platforms such as Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Skype and Google Hangouts to extort the victims. Winfield was additionally investigated for exploiting at least four victims in Fairfax and Prince William counties in Virginia, and at least one victim in College Station, Texas.