Gainesville man sentenced to four years in prison on child pornography charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Thomas Duval Andrews, 64, has been sentenced to four years in the Department of Corrections following a plea deal on child pornography charges.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip on November 2, 2021, about an anonymous Flingster user (who didn’t have an account) soliciting child abuse material. The upload IP address led to an address in Gainesville, and a subpoena led to the identification of Andrews as the subscriber owning the internet service at that address. An investigation by Gainesville Police Department (GPD) determined that Andrews lived alone at the address.

On Tuesday, October 11, 2022, the GPD Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division, with the assistance of GPD SWAT, served a search warrant at the address. When officers asked Andrews if he would speak with them about the case, he reportedly said that he didn’t wish to speak with them but doesn’t look at “kiddie porn.”

Several electronic devices were seized from his home, and forensic analysis of the seized devices reportedly yielded at least 49 unique child sexual abuse images.

Andrews was originally charged with 11 counts of possession of child pornography and one count of solicitation of child exploitation material but was formally charged with five counts of possession of child pornography. Andrews entered a plea of nolo contendere to the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 25 years, and was sentenced to concurrent four-year prison terms on each charge, with credit for 372 days served.

Andrews sent multiple letters to the judge, listing mental health treatment from the age of 17, and asked to have the case dismissed on mental health grounds. He wrote in a July letter to Judge David Kreider that he had decided to “plead ‘No Contest’ to all counts and ask your Honor to consider Downward Departer [sic] when sentencing in lieu [sic] of my extensive mental history.”

Andrews is being held at the Lake Butler Reception and Medical Center, with a projected release date in November 2026.

  • When the lights go dim in that prison dorm and he listens to them blades being sharpened on the floor he’s gonna poop himself.

  • We’ll see what your mental health status is like when you EOS. If you make it

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