KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 24-year-old Lee’s Summit man was found guilty by a federal jury Wednesday on one count of extortion in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.
Prosecutors presented evidence during a three-day trial that Leon L. Dudley III taped an envelope to a house on Aug. 24, 2018, with a handwritten letter that demanded $1 million by the next day or he’d vandalize and burn down the house.
The letter, which also warned against contacting law enforcement, included a cellphone number for the homeowners to contact.
When the money wasn’t paid the next day, several windows in the home were broken out. More windows and a sliding glass door were broken later that day as well.
Investigators traced the cellphone number to a residence where Dudley lived with his mother and matched the handwriting on the note to photos Dudley posted of another handwritten note on Facebook.
On an Apple iPad in Dudley’s bedroom, which investigators determined had been stolen in a separate incident in June, more incriminating evidence was found, including draft copies of the extortion note.
Eventually, fingerprints on the extortion note were matched to Dudley, who faces up to 20 years in prison for the conviction.
No sentencing date has been set.
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