A South Carolina couple attempted to extort money from an intellectually challenged Chick-fil-A worker in September 2024, a crime that tragically led him to take his own life.
The extortion began after the victim, Christopher Tsoulos, 37, lent one half of the couple his phone, which was never returned.
The court has sentenced the couple to several years in prison, but netizens feel the punishment should have been harsher, given the fact that they targeted a vulnerable person.
Highlights
- Christopher Tsoulos, an intellectually challenged Chick-fil-A worker, was subjected to extortion by a couple, leading to his tragic passing.
- Trysten Cullon and Jade Stone, both struggling with substance use, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking.
- Netizens felt the punishment they received was far too light and are calling for stronger protections for vulnerable individuals.
“Should have been life in prison. They are a danger to society,” wrote one.
A South Carolina couple was jailed for targeting a disabled Chick-fil-A worker and his family
Image credits: que.pedir
Trysten Cullon and Jade Stone, both 27, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit cyberstalking in June 2025.
According to court documents viewed by the Charlotte Observer, Cullon went into a Charlotte Chick-fil-A on September 5, 2024. There, he asked Tsoulos if he could use his phone and stole it.
Since the phone was unlocked, the pair gained access to Tsoulos’ financial apps and tried to transfer money to themselves, but failed.
It was after this that they began intimidating Tsoulos' family with claims that he was a pervert and paid girls for inappropriate pictures.
Image credits: News with Jahlen
Between September 5 and 7, he and Stone sent messages to Tsoulos’ mother and brother demanding money.
“How dare he work at a Christian establishment while he is going to brothels and asking hundreds of women online to have s*x,” they accused in a text, according to the outlet.
“Unless you want me to ruin him and embarrass you, I suggest you provide some compensation. He will lose everything. The things I saw [on his phone] were disgusting and disturbing,” the text added.
Per the Department of Justice press release, Cullon and Stone were charged with conspiracy to commit extortion, cyberstalking, and wire fraud on December 11, 2024.
Tsoulos was kept at a fourth-grade reading level and second-grade math level, Assistant U.S. Attorney Caryn Finley said in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina on Thursday, March 12.
“He couldn’t understand that he had not done anything wrong,” John Tsoulos, his father, said in a statement that Finley read aloud for the judge.
The couple’s threats grew so overwhelming that Tsoulos became convinced he would go to jail and lose his job
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Tsoulos, who had never touched a firearm before — not even on a hunting trip with his brother — per reports, pulled the trigger on the front porch of his house on September 8.
Both Cullon and Stone struggled with controlled substance a**iction and were seeking additional funds to support their dependency, defense attorneys Kelly Sullivan and Mekka Jeffers-Nelson said in court.
Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. concluded that they “shouldn’t get a lessened sentence” just because they were dealing with a stimulant habit.
Image credits: Real_Ames
Cullon was sentenced to 41 months in prison, eight months more than what the U.S. Attorney’s Office and his defense had jointly recommended to the court.
Stone was sentenced to 27 months behind bars, nine months more than what her attorney requested.
Both will pay restitution of $26,000.
Netizens have shared condolences for the Tsoulos family while demanding stricter penalties for similar crimes
“His smile was so charming and beautiful. I feel so sad for him. That’s so devastating,” said one commenter, adding that what he was put through should be “charged as a hate crime.”
“Their sentence was way too light,” commented another, while someone else described the handed-down prison term as a “slap on the wrist.”
Image credits: Real_Ames
“I hope these lowlifes get their karma in prison,” expressed another.
“Poor guy, he didn’t deserve any of that. I hope his family is okay. Sending prayers their way,” the next wrote, while others called Stone and Cullon “disgusting” people.
Christopher Tsoulos’ mother told the court that her son had been looking forward to a family trip
Image credits: Real_Ames
According to his family, had Tsoulos not taken his own life, he would have visited his extended family in Greece in two weeks.
Patricia Buckingham, Tsoulos’ mother, also told Judge Cogburn that he kept saying he was working out to “lose his Chick-fil-A weight.”
“His job was everything to him,” she added, per the Charlotte Observer. The only thing he loved more than that and his family was baseball.
Buckingham, who lives in Fort Myers, Florida, informed the judge about her son’s routine trips down south to watch baseball teams’ spring training.
Image credits: News with Jahlen
“He’d run down to get autographs from the players, and he’d tower over the other little kids,” she said. “But mentally, he was a little kid. Just like them.”
"What kind of money were they trying to get out of a host/greeter at a restaurant?" a netizen asked
