JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville man has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for distributing sexual abuse materials of children, the United States Attorney's Office announced Thursday.
Marshall Tyler Sills, 27, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by a 15-year term of supervised release. Sills is also required to register as a sex offender.
According to court documents, in May 2020, officers from Homeland Security Investigations began investigating a lead from the Clay County Sheriff’s Office.
The lead was concerning the uploading and sharing of files depicting the sexual abuse of children from a home in Jacksonville Heights.
CCSO advised investigators that an agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation had also begun an investigation into an upload and distribution of files of child sexual abuse material from the same address around the same time period.
During the investigation, agents learned that the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Leon County Sheriff’s had also investigated the same address in regards to child sexual abuse materials.
HSI, CCSO and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office worked together to execute a federal search warrant at the home on December 3, 2020.
During this process, HSI discovered that Sills had recently moved from his home in Jacksonville Heights to an apartment in the Ortega area.
Weeks later, agents executed a federal search warrant at Sills’s Ortega apartment and interviewed him.
During the interview, he admitted to receiving, downloading, and viewing images and videos of child sexual abuse, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Sills also told agents that he has a sexual interest in children.
Agents seized Sills’s desktop computer, which they say contained more than 1,900 files depicting children being sexually abused.
Sills pleaded guilty on June 2, 2021.
“Every time child pornography is shared, it victimizes a child again,” said HSI Jacksonville Assistant Special Agent in Charge K. Jim Phillips. “HSI special agents and our partners with the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office have made sure this predator will account for his victimization of our most vulnerable.”
