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Press Release

Lake City Man Sentenced To 13 Years In Federal Prison For Transportation Of Child Pornography

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Middle District of Florida

Jacksonville, Florida – United States District Judge Marcia Morales Howard has sentenced Robert Lamar Starling (31, Lake City) to 13 years in federal prison for transporting child pornography over the Internet.  He was also ordered to serve a 15-year term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender. He has been in federal custody since his arrest on May 1, 2014.

According to court documents, beginning in September 2013, FBI agents executed a series of search warrants on several email accounts around the country and determined, among other things, that a user in Lake City, Florida had uploaded images of child pornography to the Internet, using an account on a photo sharing site. Further investigation traced the account back to a residence in Lake City, where Starling resided.

On May 1, 2014, FBI agents and other law enforcement officers executed a federal search warrant at the residence. Starling was not at the residence, but was located later that morning driving his golf cart at the Suwannee Music Park & Campground in Live Oak. During an interview at his campsite, Starling stated that he had produced pornographic images of several prepubescent children. Subsequent analyses of Starling’s laptop computer revealed that it contained more than 8,000 images and over 2,000 videos depicting child pornography.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.  It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown.

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Updated January 26, 2016

Topic
Project Safe Childhood