{"id":174341,"date":"2026-03-01T23:13:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174341\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:13:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:13:07","slug":"jacksonville-man-pleads-guilty-to-attempting-to-entice-a-13-year-old-online","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/174341\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville man pleads guilty to attempting to entice a 13-year-old online"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jerry Cobb, 38, of Jacksonville, pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual activity using a cellphone and the internet. Cobb faces a minimum of 10 years in federal prison following an undercover operation by the FBI.<\/p>\n

United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced the guilty plea, which stems from a multi-week investigation conducted in the summer of 2025. The undercover operation targeted individuals using social media applications to solicit children for sexual activity in the Jacksonville area.<\/p>\n

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According to court documents, an undercover FBI agent used a social media app to identify adults seeking sexual contact with children. Between July 18 and August 1, the agent communicated with a user named \u201cJerry,\u201d who was later identified as Cobb. The two exchanged several private messages on the application.<\/p>\n

After the agent informed Cobb that the \u201cchild\u201d was 13 years old, Cobb asked for a residence location and inquired if the \u201cchild\u201d was a virgin and could \u201csneak out at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

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On July 30, Cobb suggested a meeting. \u201cYou want to just get a hotel room?\u201d Cobb texted the agent. During the exchange, Cobb proposed engaging in sexual activity at a hotel. On July 31, he sent another message confirming his intent, stating, \u201cYes I\u2019m serious that we can [have] sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, Cobb traveled to the designated meeting location that evening, where he expected to meet the 13-year-old.<\/p>\n

FBI agents arrested Cobb immediately upon his arrival. The investigation was a joint effort between the FBI, the St. Johns County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

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The case falls under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation. The program coordinates federal, state and local resources to locate and prosecute individuals who exploit children.<\/p>\n

Cobb faces a minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison, as well as a potential lifetime term of supervised release.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jerry Cobb, 38, of Jacksonville, pleaded guilty to attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,82653,2362,32137,116,118,117,82651,4544],"class_list":["post-174341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-child-sexual-exploitation","tag-fbi","tag-federal-prison","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jerry-cobb","tag-undercover-operation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}