Almost 40 reports of child sex pictures and videos lead to Jacksonville man’s arrest

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — After a little over a year of investigating, SWAT and detectives arrested a Jacksonville man on Sun., Aug. 4 for 13 counts of possessing child pornography.

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Arrest records obtained by Action News Jax show an investigation into Stevie Lee Branch Jr. began when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline recieved 38 reports of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The material was being transferred online, through group chats, and over cell phones.

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Records indicate the crimes were committed between July 2023 and February 2024. Verizon phone records and Google information subpoenaed showed numerous CSAM files were uploaded and sent to email addresses and phone numbers. The source all pointed to Branch Jr.

On just Jan. 8, 2023 alone, the CyberTipline generated 12 reports of child pornography files being sent.

“The Cybertipline Reports were created from a total of 158 CSAM images and videos between Dec. 14, 2023, through Jan. 5, 2024,” the arrest report states.

READ: Jacksonville man sentenced to prison for distributing child sex abuse material on social media

A search warrant of Branch Jr.’s home was executed back in February of this year. A cell phone and two USB flash drives were found and seized by police.

After almost 6 months of further investigation to build its case, detectives arrested Branch Jr. on Aug. 4 while he was mowing the grass in front of his Woodland Acres home.

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