WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber has sentenced Steven Andrew Gunn, 31, of Winter Haven, to 20 years in federal prison for the enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity and possession of child sexual abuse material.
In addition to the prison term, Gunn was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender. Gunn had pled guilty to the charges on March 28, 2024.
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Court documents revealed that between September and October 2020, Gunn used his cell phone to engage in sexually explicit conversations online with an 11-year-old child.
During these exchanges, he expressed his desire to engage in sexual activity with the child and sent videos of himself engaging in explicit acts.
Further investigation through a federal search warrant of Gunn’s phone uncovered additional sexually explicit conversations with a 14-year-old child.
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Gunn later admitted to law enforcement that he had used the Snapchat app to solicit child sexual abuse material from multiple girls, aged between 8 and 13 years.
This was not Gunn’s first offense; court records show that he had been convicted of child abuse in 2012 for similar behavior, where he engaged in sexually explicit conversations with another minor online.
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The investigation in this case was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Orlando Resident Agency, and the prosecution was handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Erin Claire Favorit and Ross Roberts.
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