Gainesville man convicted of receipt and possession of child pornography

Press release from U.S. Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Florida
A federal jury in Gainesville has convicted Travonta Deangelo Rivers, 33, of Gainesville, on two counts of receipt of child pornography and two counts of possession of child pornography. The guilty verdict, reached by the jury yesterday after a two-day trial that began on Wednesday, was announced by Jason R. Coody, Acting United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
A search warrant at Rivers’ residence in May 2020 resulted in the seizure of computers that Rivers used to receive and share numerous videos of child pornography. Rivers was located and arrested in December 2020 and again found in possession of a computer that he had used to receive and share child pornography.
“Those who seek to view and maintain child pornography facilitate the abuse of children by those who produce and profit from this illegal content,” stated Acting U.S. Attorney Coody. “With the assistance of our law enforcement partners, we will ensure that those who engage in such heinous conduct will be held accountable for their actions.”
“This guilty verdict has an immediate impact in making our communities safer by keeping this child predator off our streets and highlights the importance of law enforcement partnerships, like the one between Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Gainesville Police Department,” said HSI Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips.
Rivers’ sentencing hearing is scheduled for September 14, 2021, at 1:00 p.m. at the United States Courthouse in Gainesville before the Honorable Allen Winsor. Rivers faces two mandatory minimum terms of five years imprisonment to twenty years imprisonment, a $500,000 fine, and a maximum term of Life on supervised release.
This conviction resulted from the collaborative investigation of Homeland Security Investigations, the Gainesville Police Department, the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office, and St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office as part of the North Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Frank Williams prosecuted the case.
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