U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that 39 YO Jacob Wiebelt of Ponchatoula was sentenced for Possession of Materials Involving the Sexual Exploitation of Children.
According to documents filed in federal court, the case developed as a result of a lead to the Louisiana Bureau of Investigation that a user uploaded child sexual abuse material (“CSAM”) to the Discord messenger service.
Specifically, the lead reflected that the user uploaded sexually explicit videos of children.
On November 1, 2021, Homeland Security Investigations special agents along with the LBI executed a federal search warrant at Wiebelts’s home in Ponchatoula. Agents advised him of his Miranda rights and, after waiving his rights, he confessed to possessing, sharing, and uploading the materials. He admitted he created a Discord account and stated that other Discord users would share content on the website and he would save that content to his cellular phone.
US District Judge Jay C. Zainey sentenced Wiebelt to one hundred twenty-one months imprisonment, followed by ten years of supervised release, and continued sex offender registration.
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.
