Staff file photo / Ed Runyan David M. Dorbish Jr. attended a hearing in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in late 2019 when he was 17 years old.

AUSTINTOWN — David M. Dorbish, Jr., 23, who was sentenced to one year of incarceration and five years of probation in February 2020 after pleading guilty to 15 charges associated with “swatting” phone calls he made to six communities across the United States, was found dead April 14 in his grandmother’s home in Austintown, according to an Austintown Police Department report.

Swatting is making hoax phone calls that cause law enforcement agencies — such as a SWAT team — to respond to what they believe is a major emergency that turns out to be false.

He was indicted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in November of 2019 when he was 17 years old on 27 charges for incidents from 2017 and 2018. He was 15 to 16 years old when the incidents began, but the charges were handled in adult court.

In January 2020, Dorbish pleaded guilty to 15 charges — six of making a terroristic threat, six of making false alarms, two of identity fraud and one of telecommunications harassment. He was sentenced Feb. 28, 2020, to one year of incarceration with credit for having served a year in the Martin P. Joyce Juvenile Justice Center at the time of sentencing.

He also was ordered to pay restitution of $12,972 to the communities victimized — in Indiana, Wisconsin, New York, Florida, California and New Jersey. Authorities in those states agreed to have the charges prosecuted in Mahoning County.

Mahoning County Common Pleas Court John Durkin filed an order Aug. 31, 2023, recommending that Dorbish’s probation be terminated because he had “complied with the rules and regulations and is no longer in need of supervision.”

An Austintown police report states that someone called 911 on April 14, 2025, after his grandmother found Dorbish unresponsive in his bedroom at her home on Nassau Court and attempted life-saving measures.

She said Dorbish was transported to her home that morning because of him having mental health issues and needing rest.

She checked on Dorbish and heard him snoring, she said. But he was unresponsive at 3:14 p.m. He was pronounced dead from a possible drug overdose at 3:30 p.m. by ambulance personnel, according to the police report. There were no apparent injuries present, the report notes.

Dorbish had a Boardman address in a pending April 3, 2025, felony drug abuse charge out of Austintown, according to Mahoning County Area Court in Austintown. He was arraigned on the charge April 7.

He was released from the county jail on the charge April 4, according to jail records.