DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa. — A Dauphin County man will serve up to 15 years in state prison after pleading guilty to repeatedly calling and texting three victims over a three-year span, the Dauphin County District Attorney's Office announced this week.
Christopher Kling, 48, pleaded guilty to stalking, harassment, terroristic threats, tampering with evidence, and criminal conspiracy. He was sentenced Friday by Judge Scott Arthur Evans, according to the DA's office.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before—both in my time on the bench—but even before that," said Evans, prior to issuing the his sentence. "This was like a twisted horror movie and this was a real-life villain.”
Prosecutors say the victims received 25 to 50 calls or texts per day over the course of three years. The calls and texts were extremely vulgar and threatening, and included threats to rape and murder the victims and children related to them.
The victims reported the threats to various police agencies but were told that they could not trace the calls because the caller used “spoofed phone numbers," prosecutors say.
Investigators eventually determined that one of the victims worked with Kling's co-conspirator, Troy Sassaman.
The investigation eventually found Sassaman had recruited Kling -- a friend of his -- to contact and threaten the victims, according to prosecutors.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Gettle explained to the Court that Sassaman gathered information from working with the victim.
For example, prosecutors say, Sassaman learned where the victims were going to dinner at night and then he would have Kling call them while they were out. On the calls, Kling would indicate that he was watching them, giving details to support the claim, and threatened to murder them, according to prosecutors.
After police charged Kling and Sassaman, Sassaman committed suicide, the DA's office says.
Kling pleaded guilty to the charges and requested that the court give him a lengthy period of probation.
His attorney indicated that Kling was “just a patsy for Sassaman," according to prosecutors.
But Gettle argued that the relentless harassment went on for years and that “(Kling) wasn’t just a patsy — he was getting off on torturing these victims.”
One of the victims explained that during the three years there was one time that he begged the caller to stop because his mother was dying. The caller said he would stop — for three days.
The victim stated that the calls did stop for three days, but then began again and did not cease until the defendant’s arrest.
Even after Kling was arrested, the victim said, Kling made one more call to him and said "it would never stop."
“I cannot even begin to appreciate what you went through," Evans told the victim. "I don’t know how to give back three years of what was this torture. It’s like nothing I have ever seen.”
As a condition of his sentence, Kling is to have no contact with the victims and must undergo a psychological evaluation.
