Fort Myers, Florida – U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber has sentenced Jeffrey Holcombe (51, Naples) to 25 years in federal prison for producing images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of a child. The court also sentenced Holcombe to a term of 25 years of supervised release and ordered him to register as a sex offender. This sentence will run concurrent to a remaining term of imprisonment imposed in January 2022, by a U.S. District Court in Fort Lauderdale in a separate case. Holcombe had entered a plea on January 23, 2023.
According to court documents, between at least July 18, 2020, continuing through March 3, 2021, Holcombe produced images and videos of his sexual abuse of a minor.
On April 3, 2021, while FBI agents were assisting other agents from the Southern District of Florida in executing a warrant for Holcombe on an unrelated charge, law enforcement stopped Holcombe in his vehicle in Naples and observed a cellphone on the vehicle’s passenger seat. The vehicle was impounded, along with its contents, including Holcombe’s cellphone. On the same date, agents went to Holcombe’s home and discovered a minor residing there. Further investigation revealed that Holcombe had been sexually abusing the minor, and that he often photographed, or video recorded his sexual abuse of the minor at his home and at various hotels.
On April 5, 2021, agents executed a federal search warrant on Holcombe’s vehicle and cellphone. A forensic analysis of the cellphone revealed 26 images and 16 videos depicting the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The minor was between the ages of 16 to 17 at the time of the sexual offenses. Another search warrant for Holcombe’s and the minor’s Snapchat accounts revealed sexually explicit videos depicting Holcombe with the minor.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fort Myers Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava.
This is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, 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 the United States Attorney’s 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Originally published at https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/naples-man-sentenced-25-years-federal-prison-producing-child-sexual-abuse-images-and
