Mississippi Man Sentenced for Attempted Receipt of Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors

NEW ORLEANS, LA – AVERY FREEL (“FREEL”), age 23, of Ocean Springs, MS, was sentenced on August 21, 2025, by U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon, after previously pleading guilty to the Attempted Receipt of Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Minors, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 2252(a)(4)(B) and (b)(2), announced Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson. 

According to court documents, the case against FREEL stemmed from an online investigation by a U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“HSI”) special agent. On July 19, 2023, within the Eastern District of Louisiana, FREEL was contacted by an individual on an online messaging application. The individual told FREEL that she was 14 years old. FREEL disclosed to the individual, he believed to be a minor, that he was 21 years old and lived in Ocean Springs, MS. FREEL suggested the two of them communicate via another online messaging application. The individual he believed to be a minor received a friend request from FREEL. FREEL and the individual he believed to be a minor communicated on the online messaging application for several days. In their communications on July 25-26, 2023, FREEL asked the individual, he believed to be a minor, to take sexually explicit images of herself and send them to FREEL. On July 27, 2023, FREEL traveled from Ocean Springs, MS to Hammond, LA where he was arrested by HSI special agents.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

United States District Judge Eldon E. Fallon sentenced FREEL to sixty (60) months in the Bureau of Prisons, followed by (8) eight years of supervised release, a $100.00 mandatory special assessment fee, and a requirement to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, the Hammond Police Department, and the Louisiana Bureau of Investigations with this matter. The prosecution of this case is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian M. Klebba, Chief of the Financial Crimes Unit.

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