This Pierce County man was social media star who targeted neighbors. Now, he faces charges
A Pierce County man who amassed a large social media following and upended peace in a South Hill community has been undergoing mental health treatment while facing felony charges for publicly and repeatedly leveling unfounded claims against his neighbors.
Martin Cabello III, who has hundreds of thousands of followers between accounts on TikTok, Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, was charged on March 27 with three counts of stalking, three counts of cyber harassment and one count of harassment, Pierce County Superior Court records show.
Cabello has been in custody since January 2023 when he was originally charged in Pierce County District Court with multiple counts of violating an anti-harassment order and cyber harassment. Those charges were later dismissed and a case against him was refiled in Superior Court, according to court records.
The current charges came after Cabello, 46, allegedly violated anti-harassment orders granted to three neighbors who were frequently the target of his online videos, where he accused them of being involved in crimes such as child trafficking, rape and murder, according to a declaration for determination of probable cause.
Cabello’s claims included that his neighbors made him kill children and were involved in cartel activity and terrorist organizations, and that one had waterboarded him to coerce him into having sex with women in a swinger’s group, the charging papers said. He also reportedly filmed neighbors’ homes and yelled at them.
The charging papers indicated that Cabello told live-stream followers that he’d pay for assassins to kill or hurt one neighbor. He allegedly targeted authorities, too, saying that Pierce County sheriff’s deputies were covering up human trafficking perpetuated by his neighbors, that deputies could be legally killed or shot for trespassing and that Prosecuting Attorney’s Office personnel were criminals.
The anti-harassment orders were granted in February 2021, preventing Cabello from — among other things — communicating with those neighbors or suggesting they had committed lewd or lascivious acts. Cabello allegedly failed to abide by the orders roughly 20 times over the course of a year by continuing to make claims in online videos, according to charging papers.
The neighbors told authorities they feared for their personal safety because Cabello posted information about their homes to his significant online audience. One neighbor reported receiving phone calls from social media followers. Another said that some, in comments to online posts, had threatened to harm him.
“Throughout their contacts with (the neighbors), Pierce County deputies have no reason to believe that (the neighbors) or their families are involved in any of the activities referenced by Cabello,” charging papers said.
Mental health issues
On social media, Cabello garnered a following as he frequently posted about living with autism and, some said, inspired others to live healthier lives. But neighbors told The News Tribune in 2021 that his repeated claims about their alleged misconduct had made their lives miserable, leading to some receiving death threats and others to move away.
Now, court records paint a picture of a man struggling with his mental health.
Since being charged in March, Cabello has twice been found mentally incompetent to stand trial due to a mental disorder and ordered to undergo restorative treatment, court records show. After an independent expert was appointed this month to examine Cabello, the next hearing in his case is scheduled Jan. 31.
Two in-patient psychiatric evaluations of Cabello have been filed with the court. Both arrived at the same conclusion: He was unable to understand the nature of the proceedings against him or to assist his counsel in his defense, but that he was reasonably likely to regain competency with treatment.
A licensed psychologist’s report in April said Cabello “maintained several grandiose and paranoid delusions,” his family had tried several times to have him hospitalized and he had roughly 40 outpatient contacts for mental health treatment in 2015 and 2016. A second evaluation from September noted that he was in the midst of an acute episode of schizophrenia.
Cabello’s assigned counsel, Jessica Campbell, did not respond to an email inquiry about his case by deadline Thursday.
In July, Campbell filed to hold the state Department of Social and Health Services and Western State Hospital in contempt for violating a court order by delaying Cabello’s transport to the state hospital for inpatient restorative treatment. Days later, the state was found in contempt and ultimately paid $659 in fines, court records show.
In that same July filing, Campbell offered facts and procedural history about the case, saying that her client suffered from Schizoaffective Disorder.
“One of his symptoms was a delusional belief that his neighbors, along with clergy members, a homeowner’s association, the cartel, terrorist organizations, and the sheriff’s department, were all part of a human trafficking ring that was committing many serious crimes, including raping and murdering children, and using the military to cover it up,” she wrote.
“Due to his delusional beliefs,” she added, “he allegedly repeatedly posted public content on social media, accusing his neighbors of these acts.”
Cabello had lived in the Westmore community since 2005 and neighbors previously reported having no problems with him for at least a decade. But when things turned ugly in recent years, the Westmore Homeowners’ Association sent a cease-and-desist letter to Cabello in 2021 amid growing tensions about a situation that appeared to test the limits of free speech, The News Tribune previously reported.
In one victim-impact statement filed with the court by a neighbor who had been granted an anti-harassment order, the neighbor wrote that Cabello routinely asked social media followers to join efforts to rid the neighborhood of supposed wrongdoers.
“My wife and I don’t want to spend the rest of our life making sure we have a gun for protection with us when we are outside our own home,” the neighbor wrote.
Cabello has no past felony criminal record and was previously convicted of four counts of fourth-degree assault domestic violence, a misdemeanor, from 2015, according to the July filing.
He faces 41 to 54 months in prison on the charges he currently faces, the filing said.
Meanwhile, Cabello’s disappearance from social media hasn’t gone unnoticed by people who follow him, as evidenced by a pinned post on X from a year ago, a month before he was taken into custody.
“Martin,” one user commented in April, “where the hell did you go?”
This story was originally published December 29, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
