Byron man sentenced to 3 years in prison for stalking, harassment

A Byron man who sent 14,000 threatening emails to a woman despite being ordered to have no contact with her after pleading guilty to domestic battery in 2022 was sentenced Thursday, July 17, to three years in prison.

Andrew Gornick, 43, pleaded guilty to stalking and harassment through electronic communication, both Class 4 felonies, when he appeared before Ogle County Judge John “Ben” Roe.

Gornick’s attorney, Cassandra Hirth of Rockford, said a plea agreement had been reached in exchange for Gornick’s guilty plea.

Roe read portions of the emails Gornick sent to the woman, some of which were laced with profanities and threats to burn down her home.

“I am sorry I have to read these,” Roe said as he began to read the charges. ‘“It is in your best interest to call the cops...I will watch you and [...] in one box together...Call the cops your life is in jeopardy. You will die today’.”

In other emails, Gornick wrote “coming to burn your house down” and “I guess I will get drunk and come over with matches. I’m burning the [......] down today. I am burning your home down tonight. I swear on my dad’s life”.

Roe said Gornick threatened more physical harm to the man and woman, accompanying the threat with a photo of two knives.

Other charges quote Gornick as saying, “I will serve 25 years to make a point”...”I’m killing him” [...] This morning!!!!!”, “I will go to prison” and “I am killing both of you.”

As Roe read the statements, Gornick shook his head and sometimes looked down. At one point, he told Roe he had received no help for his mental health condition.

Roe asked Gornick several times if he understood the court proceedings and if he wanted to continue with the plea agreement. Gornick nodded and said “yes”.

“How do you plead to these charges,” Roe asked Gornick.

“Guilty,” Gornick replied.

In the domestic battery case filed in November 2022, Gornick pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2023 to 24 months of probation and ordered to pay $1,674 in fines and fees. Part of that sentence ordered him to have no contact with the victim.

Gornick was then charged in April 2024 with cyberstalking and electronic harassment for a series of emails in December 2023 that prosecutors said he knew would cause a “reasonable person to fear for their safety or the safety of a third person.”

The 2024 cyberstalking charge accused Gornick of typing that he would kill the woman and her boyfriend. Prosecutors said that the incident occurred on or about Dec. 13, 2023. Gornick was also accused of typing that he would drown the woman and sending a “suggestion or proposal which is obscene” with the intent to offend.

He was also ordered to pay $1,299 in fines and costs, payable by Nov. 30, 2026.

An order of protection for the woman will remain in effect until July 17, 2031.

As per the plea agreement, other counts filed against Gornick were dismissed.

At a June hearing, Assistant State’s Attorney Allison Huntley said Gornick’s behavior had “escalated” and estimated he had sent at least 174 emails to the woman from Jan. 18 to 21. In total, Huntley said he had sent at least 14,230 emails to the woman.

Huntley said Gornick’s emails had gone to the woman’s junk email folder because she blocked him in an attempt to ignore his communications. She said some of the emails were obscene in nature and clearly made to threaten the woman and her friend.

Huntley told Roe that Gornick was ordered not to have any contact with the woman in the 2022 case and in the case filed in April 2024.

At that June hearing, Hirth asked and received a continuance from Roe to obtain Gornick’s medical records, which she said were essential to determining her client’s mental health.

Huntley argued that Gornick should have pursued treatment after being sentenced to probation in 2023.

Roe agreed.

“That plea agreement had a number of conditions, one being to have no contact with the victim and another to cooperate with any psychological assessment. Psychological treatment was part of that order,” Roe said in June. “I understand mental health issues and crisis that go on with people that come before the court, and this is most likely a mental health issue, but the defendant should have sought treatment one and one half years ago.”