TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA \u2013 Hunter Wesley Aultman, 24, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced last week to seven years in federal prison after previously pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute and receive child pornography, distribution of child pornography, and receipt of child pornography. The sentence was announced by John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.<\/p>\n
U.S. Attorney Heekin said: \u201cEnding the cycle of victimization and sexual exploitation of children that is perpetuated by the distribution of child sexual abuse material remains a top priority for my office. I appreciate the excellent work by our state and federal law enforcement partners to investigate these terrible crimes, and my office will continue to deploy the full force of the law to pursue, prosecute, and punish predators, like this defendant, who threaten the safety and innocence of our children.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to court records, in January 2024 the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office arrested the defendant for multiple burglaries and seized his cell phone as evidence. A search of the defendant\u2019s cell phone revealed that it contained hundreds of child pornography videos. The phone also contained evidence of multiple online chats in which the defendant traded child pornography with other users. Investigators also discovered evidence that the defendant ran a chat group intended to facilitate the sharing child pornography among its members.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deliberate distribution and facilitation of child sexual abuse material is an appalling violation that perpetuates the suffering of innocent children for a lifetime,\u201d said Homeland Security Investigations Tallahassee Assistant Special Agent in Charge Nicholas Ingegno. \u201cThose who engage in these heinous crimes not only exploit victims but also create networks that perpetually amplify harm and trauma. HSI will relentlessly pursue and prosecute anyone who seeks to profit from or enable the abuse of children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aultman\u2019s sentence of imprisonment will be followed by a ten-year term of supervised release and a requirement to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.\u00a0He was also ordered to pay restitution to his victims.<\/p>\n
The conviction and sentence were the result of a joint investigation by the Leon County Sheriff\u2019s Office and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Justin M. Keen.<\/p>\n
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice and led by the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), it marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit\u00a0www.projectsafechildhood.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n The United States Attorney\u2019s Office for the Northern District of Florida is one of 94 offices that serve as the nation\u2019s principal litigators under the direction of the Attorney General.\u00a0 To access public court documents online, please visit the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida<\/a> website.\u00a0For more information about the United States Attorney\u2019s Office, Northern District of Florida, visit http:\/\/www.justice.gov\/usao\/fln\/index.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA \u2013 Hunter Wesley Aultman, 24, of Tallahassee, Florida, was sentenced last week to seven years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-85933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933","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=85933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}