Special to Iredell Free News
A Statesville man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Thursday for possession and receipt of child exploitation material.
Jessie Leroy Glass Jr., 50, who was convicted by a jury last summer, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth D. Bell at the federal courthouse in Statesville.
The judge also ordered Glass to be on supervised release for the rest of his life. He also must to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison and pay $5,000 in fines and $6,000 in restitution.
Dena J. King, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina, announced the disposition in a news release.
According to trial evidence, witness testimony and filed court documents, between January and February 2020, Glass received and possessed images and videos of child pornography. As trial evidence established, the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office initiated an investigation into Glass after an individual alerted law enforcement about Glass’s possession of child pornography.
Over the course of the investigation, law enforcement recovered two cell phones associated with Glass. A forensic analysis of the cell phones revealed that they contained images and videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including infants and toddlers.
In June 2023, a federal jury convicted Glass of three counts of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
While Glass not out on bond both before and after the jury convicted him at trial, he was subject to a court order that he not possess electronic devices. During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Judge Bell granted the government’s request for a higher sentence because Glass violated the conditions of his bond on two occasions by possessing electronic devices, including cell phones, that he hid from his supervising probation officer. One of the secret cell phones that Glass possessed after his conviction and while he was on bond contained cartoon images depicting the sexual abuse of children.
Glass is in federal custody. He will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.
In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney King commended the FBI, HSI, and the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of the case.
Assistant United States Attorneys Kimlani Ford and Stephanie Spaugh of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.
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. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood 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, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
I, think 15 years isn’t enough for what he done. But that’s how the laws works. He will get out in about two years, do it all over again. Just think what those kids had to go through. To me I think he should get life.
EDITOR: Federal prisoners must serve at least 85 percent of their sentence.