Please E-mail suggested additions, comments and/or corrections to Kent@MoreLaw.Com.
Date: 10-25-2020
Case Style:
Case Number: 1:20-cr-00047-HSO-RPM
Judge: Halil Sul Ozerden
Court: United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi (Harrison County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States District Attorney’s Office, Gulfport, Mississippi
Defendant's Attorney:
OR
Just Call 855-853-4800 for Free Help Finding a Lawyer Help You.
Description: Gulfport, Mississippi production of child pornography criminal defense lawyer represented defendant who was charged with producing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Edward Lee Thomas, 48, of Perkinston, was charged with producing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst and Gilbert Trill, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New Orleans.
In March of 2020, HSI Gulfport received 95 images and 2 videos of child sexual abuse from The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The investigation led agents to a residence in Forrest County, Mississippi, where the sexual abuse images of two minors had been taken. Agents executed a federal search warrant at the residence of Edward Lee Thomas in Perkinston, Mississippi. The seizure and forensic examination of electronic devices taken from Thomas’ residence revealed over 4,000 images and 700 videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Thomas will be sentenced by Judge Ozerden on January 21, 2021, at 10:00 a.m., in Gulfport. He faces a penalty of not less than 15 years and not more than 30 years in prison. However, if Thomas’s 2004 Mississippi state conviction for sexual battery of a child is determined to be a qualifying prior conviction, he faces a maximum penalty of not less than 25 years nor more than 50 years, and a $250,000 fine.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones.
POSSESSION OF CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
(1-2)
PRODUCTION AND ATTEMPT TO DO SO OF IMAGES OF MINORS ENGAGING IN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONDUCT
(1s)
POSSESSION OF IMAGES OF MINORS ENGAGING IN SEXUALLY EXPLICIT CONDUCT
(2s-3s)
Outcome: Defendant pleaded guilty.
Plaintiff's Experts:
Defendant's Experts:
Comments: