Gainesville man arrested on 64 charges related to child pornography

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Alex Michael Sellers, 26, was arrested yesterday morning and charged with two counts of obscene communication with a minor under 16, using a computer to solicit a minor, 13 counts of transmitting child pornography, 32 counts of using a two-way communications device to facilitate a felony, and 16 counts of transmitting obscene material to a minor.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited children received a CyberTip on November 7, 2023, regarding child exploitation activity on a Discord server; the suspect account had uploaded 13 “apparent child pornography” files onto multiple Discord servers. The upload address belonged to a Cox account in Gainesville.

A Gainesville Police Department detective sent subpoenas to Cox and Discord, and the address came back to a home in San Felasco Estates, in the county; the case was reassigned to Alachua County Sheriff’s Office (ASO).

An ASO detective reviewed the information provided by Discord and reportedly found a chat between the suspect account and an account that claimed to be a 12-year-old female. During a lengthy conversation, the suspect account responded to questions from the child account about various sexual terms and sent several nude pictures. One of the pictures showed part of the suspect account owner’s face and his genitals, and the image reportedly showed a large, dark freckle near his belly button. During the conversation, the suspect account tried several times to get the child account to send him nude pictures.

In a second conversation, the suspect account chatted with an account that claimed to be a 15-year-old male; the two accounts traded images and videos of minor children, including some that the child account claimed were pictures of ex-girlfriends between the ages of 14 and 17. The suspect account asked the child account to send the “youngest you got.” The suspect account sent 12 files (three videos and nine images) to the child account.

The detective spoke to Sellers yesterday morning at his home, and post Miranda, Sellers reportedly said he used Discord to talk to friends and that he would block any account that claimed to be a minor. He reportedly admitted sending nude photos to strangers but denied sending anything to a minor. He reportedly denied any memory of the conversations with the child accounts.

After Sellers was transported to the jail, the detective reported that a search warrant of his body was executed and he has a freckle matching the nude photo, along with other similarities to the body parts seen in the nude photos.

Sellers has no local criminal history. Judge Jonathan Ramsey set bail at $910,000.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.