Durham man sentenced to prison for cyberstalking Raleigh councilman, others
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- Durham man got 44 months for federal cyberstalking of multiple victims.
- Indictment alleges harassment from 2019–2024 and lists five victims.
- Judge ordered three years supervised release with mental health and device monitoring.
A Durham man will serve 44 months in prison on federal cyberstalking charges after a long history of harassing gay men in the Triangle, including Raleigh City Councilman Jonathan Lambert-Melton.
David Ryan Winters will also serve three years of supervised probation after his release, during which time his mental health and electronic-device use will be monitored.
Between 2019 and 2024, Winters sent harassing and intimidating electronic and text messages to Lambert-Melton and monitored him on the internet, according to his indictment. These included death threats, the councilman said.
“I felt like I was under a weighted blanket,” said Lambert-Melton, who gave a victim impact statement Monday during Winters’ sentencing in Wilmington. “The only time that weight was lifted was while he was incarcerated.”
Multiple victims
Winters’ indictment listed five victims and argued that they were selected for their gender and sexual orientation.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors filed a memorandum asking the judge to sentence Winters under a heightened hate-crime guideline.
“The evidence that the defendant selected the victims in this case because they are gay is overwhelming,” wrote U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle and Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin Blondel, “though unusual: the defendant, himself a gay may, concluded that the gay community rejected him and targeted even strangers for harassment.”
An LGBT Center volunteer
In their memo, the prosecutors wrote that Winters volunteered at the LGBT Center of Raleigh in 2013 and 2014, but his behavior there bothered others to the extent staff told him he could visit but no longer volunteer.
Winters’ threats were severe enough, at one point invoking the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Florida, that the center took security precautions. One harassment victim moved to the West Coast, according to court documents.
Winters began stalking members from other LGBT groups he felt had rejected him, court records stated, but he also victimized strangers. Prosecutors describe Winters photographing himself inside victims’ locked apartment buildings, visiting their relatives and sending them pictures of their houses.
Court documents show a long history of the defendant’s psychiatric treatment, but they also note he threatened and smashed the window of his own mental health care provider, forcing a restraining order.
Lambert-Melton said Winters’ attorney noted the defendant had also targeted victims who are not gay, and the judge declined the heightened sentencing while seeming torn.
The councilman described himself as “scared” to appear in court Monday but glad to help it conclude.
“This chapter has been one of the hardest in my life,” he wrote in a Facebook post, “and I’m thankful for the support of the many people who helped bring this matter to a just outcome.”
This story was originally published February 23, 2026 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Durham man sentenced to prison for cyberstalking Raleigh councilman, others."