A Nigerian man has been extradited to the United States to face criminal charges in connection with the death of former Starkville Academy student and football player Walker Montgomery.
Adebola Festus Adekunle, 26, will face prosecution in the U.S. for the alleged financially-motivated sextortion of Montgomery, which lead to the victim taking his own life at age 16, an unsealed federal indictment revealed. Adekunle is charged with the sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, the production of child sexual abuse material, coercion and enticement of a minor, and interstate threats with intent to extort.
Adekunle was arrested in Nigeria in August 2023, as part of a wider operation with the FBI to apprehend sexual extortionists targeting minors in the United States. He was extradited to the U.S. on Thursday with the assistance of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the FBI Legal Attaché in Abuja, and FBI agents from the Jackson Resident Agency, who traveled to Nigeria and took him into U.S. custody.
In Montgomery’s case, the defendant is accused of posing as a minor who used manipulative language to coerce the Starkville teen into sharing private content before demanding a $1,000 payment and threatening to blackmail the victim. Montgomery died by suicide on Dec. 1, 2022.
Following his passing, the Mississippi legislature passed and Gov. Tate Reeves enacted “Walker’s Law,” a bill that created a criminal offense for sextortion in the state.
As for Adekunle, the defendant faces up to life in prison, and mandatory minimum prison sentences on at least two charges. The child exploitation resulting in death count carries a mandatory 30-year prison sentence, if found guilty of that charge.
“Walker Montgomery should be here with us today. He should be moving into his dormitory, meeting up with friends, and running to class. That he is not is a tragedy. And it is because of the criminal acts of someone halfway around the world – someone who has been brought back to the United States now to stand trial for his actions,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said.
“This trial cannot bring back Walker and the Montgomery family will always hurt. But I hope that today they get some closure, and assurances that Walker will get justice.”
The case is being investigated by the FBI Jackson Field Office, the FBI’s Violent Crimes Against Children Section and International Operations Division, and the Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office, and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Parker S. King.
