COLUMBIA, S.C. (WIS) - A man accused of extorting the 17-year-old son of a State House representative has been arraigned in South Carolina.

In 2022, Gavin Guffey, the son of South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey, R - York, died by suicide.

“Gavin seemed to bring joy to everyone,” Rep. Guffey said during a new conference on Monday. “You didn’t meet anyone who didn’t have a story about Gavin...He just lit up a room.”

As his family investigated his death, they found Gavin had been communicating online with a stranger named Bellajane28, who was posing as a college volleyball player.

The stranger was not a college-aged girl but a Nigerian man, 24-year-old Hassanbunhussein Abalore Lawal, who prosecutors say coerced Gavin into sending intimate photos of himself and then tried to extort him for money.

Prosecutors said Lawal threatened to release the pictures and ruin his father’s political career if he was not paid.

On Monday, Lawal was charged with child exploitation resulting in death, the production and distribution of child sexual abuse material, coercion and enticement of a minor, cyberstalking resulting in death, interstate threat with intent to extort and aiding/abetting.

Lawal faces up to life in prison. One charge can be sentenced to the death penalty. As part of an agreement between the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Nigerian government, the United States will not be pursuing the death penalty.

He was extradited and taken to the United States on Saturday.

Lawal entered a “not guilty” plea to the charges presented, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Judge Hodges told Lawal he “can think of no set of circumstances that would persuade [him] to release [him].”

Prosecutors say during the arraignment, they found Lawal sent messages to six other minors under different screen names.

Messages found on Lawal’s phone showed communications between Gavin and Lawal where Gavin said he was “scared” and “[had] a gun in [his] lap.”

“We will not allow predators who target our children to hide behind a keyboard or across the ocean,” said U.S. Attorney Adair Boroughs for the District of Columbia. “Today we honor Gavin’s life and continue our fight against sextortion by holding this defendant accountable.”

The defendant has a detention hearing set for Monday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m.

Following Gavin’s death, Rep. Guffey worked with state legislators to pass “Gavin’s Law” , which made sexual extortion, commonly known as “sextortion”, a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison in South Carolina.

The law went into effect on in 2023 after being signed by Governor McMaster.