A Newcastle man with prior stalking convictions is accused of calling a woman dozens of times in a matter of hours, then showing up at her house before dawn and banging on her doors and windows after he told police she had started “ghosting” him.
Ronald Winfield Sandness, born in 1988, is charged with felony stalking after Newcastle police say they found him Sept. 1 driving a side-by-side near the woman's home.
Sandness denied he'd been there, saying “I ain't going to her f-----g house."
Police say a security camera showed otherwise. Footage from the video shows him knocking on her door, pulling on it repeatedly and calling for the woman.
He told an officer he'd been trying to figure out why the woman suddenly stopped talking to him.
When he voluntarily handed over his cellphone, officer Jacob Esposito saw 38 unanswered phone, FaceTime and Facebook Messenger calls from Sandness to the woman between 4:40 and 7:30 that morning.
“I tried callin her a bunch this morning a little bit, because like all the sudden I didn't hear from her you know,” Sandness told Esposito.
Someone At The Windows
Newcastle police were dispatched at about 7:25 a.m. Sept. 1 to a report of Sandness outside the woman's home.
The woman told dispatchers he was knocking on her doors and windows and yelling for her to let him inside, the affidavit says.
She also described the green-and-gray side-by-side he was driving.
Esposito spotted a matching machine nearby and stopped it. Sandness was behind the wheel.
When asked where he'd been, Sandness told the officer he'd gone to see a man named “Bill” to find out whether Bill had heard from the woman.
The affidavit says Sandness couldn't provide Bill's last name, address or much other information that would allow the officer to identify him.
“She was calling me and texting me all f-----g day yesterday, and then all the sudden, like last night, she just f-----g ghosted me.”
128 Unanswered Calls, Messages
The woman told police she'd resumed talking to Sandness about a month earlier.
She said the relationship deteriorated as Sandness became increasingly demanding and threatening.
Sandness threatened to expose what he claimed was illegal activity to her employer, friends and family, the affidavit says. She also reported that he threatened to “f--k up” her life if she wouldn't stay with him.
She eventually blocked him.
That didn't stop the attempts to reach her, she told police.
The woman said Sandness continued finding different ways to contact her after she'd blocked him for a week or two.
Esposito reviewed her Facebook Messenger conversation with Sandness and reported finding about 128 unanswered calls or messages from him since about Aug. 26, less than a week before police were called to her home.
Some messages appeared to have been removed from Sandness' side of the conversation, the affidavit says, leaving notices reading, “Ronald deleted a message.”
The woman told police that when she demanded Sandness stop contacting her, his demeanor would change.
He would go from crying and acting sad to becoming angry, screaming and calling her derogatory names, she said.
'I'll Shoot U'
A December 2025 affidavit describes another case involving the same pair.
At the time, the woman told police she'd been living with Sandness for several months but was afraid of what would happen when she tried to leave him.
After she left and attempted to retrieve her belongings, investigators documented a series of threatening messages they attributed to Sandness.
“I'll kill u if u show hrre,” one read.
Another warned, “If u call the cops will be ur last call.”
The messages became darker.
“I'll shoot u and the police if I have to im done with life,” Sandness allegedly wrote.
Another threatened the woman's family: “U best just leave me alone or I'll come f----n kill ur whole family.”
At the time those messages were sent, Sandness was already prohibited by an August 2025 bond order from contacting the woman, the affidavit says.
He was also on probation stemming from an earlier stalking conviction.
Prior Stalking Convictions
The progression documented in court records stretches back at least three years: A protection-order violation in 2023, a stalking conviction in 2024, another stalking conviction carrying a lengthy suspended prison sentence, and now a new felony stalking allegation.
When he allegedly appeared outside the woman's home Sept. 1, Sandness was serving three years of probation for his previous stalking case — a probation that was keeping him from serving a seven- to 10-year prison sentence.
The latest affidavit says Sandness violated that probation by contacting the same woman he had specifically been ordered to leave alone.
That means Sandness isn't simply defending himself against a new felony allegation, police say. He also faces consequences for violating the probation that was keeping the previous prison sentence suspended.
In 2024, Sandness pleaded no contest to misdemeanor stalking. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
A year earlier, a judge found Sandness guilty of violating a protection order after he texted a woman Aug. 4 and Aug. 5, court records show.
Sandness spent one day in jail in that case and was sentenced to 90 days, with 89 days suspended in favor of six months of probation.
If prosecutors also pursue revocation of his probation and a judge revokes it, Sandness could potentially be ordered to serve some or all of the previously suspended seven- to 10-year prison sentence, separate from the 10 years he now faces on the new stalking charge.
Kolby Fedore can be reached at kolby@cowboystatedaily.com.
