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A 29-year-old Trabuco Canyon man was scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday on charges of stalking a professional video game player from Canada.
FBI agents arrested Evan Baltierra on Monday afternoon. He is accused of harassing the victim, her boyfriend, her friends and their families since July 2020, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Baltierra met the alleged victim in November 2019 when she appeared at BlizzCon in Anaheim, an annual gaming convention. The woman, who is a prominent World of Warcraft gamer, had a meet-and-greet with fans at the Anaheim Convention Center.
After the convention ended, Baltierra allegedly asked her to be his "valentine," prosecutors said. She declined, saying she had a boyfriend, prosecutors said.
Baltierra then said he wanted to visit her in Canada, but she declined that offer as well, prosecutors said.
The woman removed the defendant as a moderator of her stream channel and blocked him from her social media accounts when she found out in June 2020 that Baltierra was working to determine where she lived, prosecutors said.
Baltierra kept messaging her on social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram and Reddit and also through her email, prosecutors said. He is also accused of messaging her boyfriend and colleagues in the same way, sometimes with threats of violence.
The defendant is also accused of photoshopping the victim's face on pornographic pictures and displaying them online and sending them to the woman's friends and family, according to prosecutors.
The victim got a temporary restraining order against Baltierra through Orange County Superior Court in February 2021, but despite an agreement to stop bothering her he continued to stalk her, prosecutors allege.
Federal authorities executed a search warrant at the defendant's home in March, which led to the recovery of a thumb drive containing photoshopped nude images with the victim's face on the models, prosecutors said.