Jeremy Jaynes, 30, from North Carolina, was found guilty in November of violating a newly-enacted Virginia law, the first in the US to introduce custodial sentences for the worst spam offenders.Jaynes, together with his sister, Jessica DeGroot, and a third defendant, Richard Rutkowski, had been accused of sending out millions of junk e-mail messages in July and August 2003 through an AOL server based in Virginia.According to reports, Jaynes was earning around $750,000 (£398,000) per month from spamming.In November, the Virginia jury recommended that Jaynes, also known as Gaven Stubberfield, serve nine years in prison and that DeGroot be fined $7,500. Rutkowski was acquitted.Trial Judge Thomas Horne dismissed DeGroot's conviction in March this year, on the grounds that the jurors may have been confused by the technical terms in the state's new laws.According to the Washington Post, Judge Horne confirmed the nine-year sentence for Jaynes but postponed its effect pending the appeal because the legislation is new and raises "substantial legal issues".
