Texas man sentenced after pleading guilty to stalking Caitlin Clark
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A 55-year-old Texas man has been sentenced after pleading guilty to stalking Indiana Fever basketball star Caitlin Clark.
Michael Lewis on Monday received a 2-1/2 year sentence in the Department of Correction for a Level 6 felony count of stalking, according a plea agreement with the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office. The sentence was the maximum available for that specific charge.
He also pleaded guilty to Class B misdemeanor harassment, with a 180-day sentence on the charge suspended.
Lewis received 197 days for time served, which means he will serve less than two years of his sentence.
Under the agreement, Lewis is to have no contact with Clark during the duration of his sentence. He also agreed to stay away from Indiana Fever events, Gainbridge Fieldhouse, Hinkle Fieldhouse and Indiana Pacers organization events.
Lewis was arrested in Indianapolis in mid-January after investigators said he sent numerous threats and sexually explicit messages to Clark via his social media accounts starting Dec. 16.
Investigators discovered that Lewis’ most recent messages came from IP addresses in Indianapolis and that he was staying at the Hilton Garden Hotel at 120 W. Market St., a few blocks from Gainbridge Fieldhouse, where the Fever practice and play games. He also posted messages from downtown’s Indianapolis Public Library.
According to charging documents, Lewis caused “Caitlin Clark to feel terrorized, frightened, intimidated, or threatened, and did make an implicit or explicit threat with the intent to place Caitlin Clark in reasonable fear of sexual battery.”
Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officers visited Lewis because of concern about the messages and Lewis told them he was having “an imaginary relationship” with Clark. According to an affidavit, Lewis said he was in Indianapolis on a vacation and called the posts a “joke.”
“This resolution ensures that the defendant is held accountable for his threatening actions, the fear he instilled, and the disruption he caused,” Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said in written remarks. “He will now spend the next two and a half years in the Department of Correction and the victim will be able to have peace of mind while focusing on what matters to her.”