JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 57-year-old Fleming Island man has pleaded guilty in Jacksonville to receiving child pornography over the Internet.
Jimmy Holmes faces five to 20 years in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release. Holmes has been in custody since his arrest on Sept. 24.
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At the time of his arrest, he said he worked at the Barco-Newton YMCA in Fleming Island, where he taught sports to children. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.
According to court documents, an agent with the FBI in Jacksonville began an investigation to identify individuals in that area that had access to and/or were trading images and videos of child pornography over the Internet.
Through his investigation, the agent determined that a host computer in the Jacksonville area, using a particular Internet protocol address, was hosting images of child pornography via a particular peer-to-peer file sharing program. The agent made successful connections to the host computer and successfully downloaded several video files directly.
The downloaded files contained depictions of child pornography. Further investigation revealed that the subscriber information to the IP address resolved to a particular home located in Fleming Island.
On Sept. 24, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed the search warrant at Holmes' home and seized several computers and other items of electronic media. At the home, Holmes told the agents that he knew child pornography to be both illegal and morally unjustifiable, and was recently downloading and watching child pornography two or three times per week. Holmes further stated that he has tried to cease such activities repeatedly, but has not been able to abstain indefinitely.
According to Holmes, he uses child pornography for "personal use" and further noted, "I like to watch it." Subsequent analysis of Holmes' computer media revealed that it contained a total of 174 videos and 247 images depicting child pornography.