MIAMI – Billy Joe Gann, Jr., 32, of Sebring, has been sentenced to 420 months in federal prison for producing and distributing child pornography.
Court records show that in June of 2021, Gann began chatting online with a person whom he believed to be a woman living with her young daughter in Wisconsin. During the chats, Gann sent images and a video of a seven-year-old in lascivious poses and discussed his role in the girl’s sexual molestation. Gann encouraged the woman he believed to be a Wisconsin mother, and like-minded predator, to get her 14-year-old daughter drunk and sexually assault her after she was passed out. Law enforcement officers arrested Gann soon after that chat.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and Robert M. DeWitt, Acting Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami, announced the sentence that U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg imposed yesterday in West Palm Beach.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
FBI Miami investigated the case with assistance from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office and the Highlands County Sheriff’s Office, Special Victims Unit. Assistant U.S. Attorney Luisa Honora Berti prosecuted it.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, case number is 21-cr-14034.
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