UF student arrested on child pornography charges

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shalom Ishrael Maurol Barnes, 19, was arrested yesterday on 10 child pornography charges.

On October 13, 2024, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip from Discord with five videos classified as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) that were uploaded to an account and distributed that day. The videos reportedly show adults engaged in sexual activity with pre-pubescent children. Gainesville Police Department investigated the tip.

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.

A subpoena to Cox for the login IP address for the account provided the address of an apartment at Gainesville Place Apartments (2800 SW 35th Place).

A search of law enforcement databases produced only one Shalom Barnes, a resident of Apopka; a search of traffic cameras for his vehicle showed that the vehicle has been driven recently in both Gainesville and Apopka.

The University of Florida Police Department reportedly confirmed that Barnes is a current student at the university and provided an address at Gainesville Place Apartments and a phone number that was used to create multiple accounts associated with Barnes, including the Discord account.

A search warrant was executed at Barnes’s apartment on July 24. Post Miranda, Barnes reportedly confirmed the phone number and the Discord account as his. He 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 does not “do that stuff” currently but viewed CSAM on Twitter about two months ago.

Barnes reportedly said he had received emails from Discord on the date the videos were shared, stating that someone had logged in or attempted to log in to his account. He reportedly showed those emails to a Gainesville Police Department detective, who reported that the emails were sent to a different email address from the one associated with the reported Discord account and that they showed different usernames from the reported account.

Barnes has been charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of distribution of child pornography. He has no local criminal history; Judge Susan Miller-Jones set bail at $400,000.

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.