Former UF student sentenced to 7 years in prison after pleading to child pornography charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shalom Ishrael Maurol Barnes, 20, has been sentenced to seven years in state prison, followed by 10 years of sexual offender probation, after entering a plea of nolo contendere to 10 child pornography charges.

Original arrest

Barnes was originally arrested on August 21, 2025, after the Gainesville Police Department investigated a CyberTip about five videos classified as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that were uploaded to a Discord account.

A search warrant to Discord produced information about the person who created the account and the contents of a chat dedicated to child pornography distribution in which the five videos were shared. Discord also reportedly provided a private message in which the account requested specific video content of an adult female and pre-pubescent male engaged in sexual activity; one of the five videos provided by Discord reportedly matched that description.

The investigation led to Barnes’ apartment at Gainesville Place Apartments (2800 SW 35th Place), and the University of Florida Police Department confirmed that Barnes was a current student at the university with an address at Gainesville Place Apartments and a phone number that was used to create multiple accounts associated with Barnes, including the Discord account.

Post Miranda, Barnes reportedly said he created the Discord account when he tried out for the UF basketball team because they used Discord to communicate with players. He said he didn’t remember sending the five videos in the group chat because it was almost a year ago. When he was asked when he last shared CSAM, he reportedly said he did not “do that stuff” anymore but viewed CSAM on Twitter about two months ago.

Plea agreement

On July 21, Barnes entered a plea of nolo contendere to five counts of possession of child pornography (a lesser included offense) and five counts of directing or promoting a sexual performance by a child; five counts of soliciting child pornography were dropped as part of the plea agreement. According to the plea document, the maximum sentence for the charges is 100 years in prison.

Judge Susanne Wilson Bullard sentenced Barnes to five concurrent sentences of five years in prison with credit for 22 days served for the possession counts, followed by five concurrent sentences of two years for the charges of directing or promoting a sexual performance by a child. The prison sentence will be followed by 10 years of sexual offender probation, and he will be designated as a Sexual Offender.