State Attorney John F. Durrett announces that Ross David Emery, Jr., having been found guilty by a jury of ten counts of Possession of Child Pornography in August in Columbia County, was sentenced on October 11, 2023, to one hundred and ten years in the Florida Department of Corrections. The Hon. Melissa G. Olin sentenced Mr. Emery to eleven years prison on each count, with each count running consecutive to each other, totaling the one-hundred-and-ten-year sentence.
In Florida, a person can be charged for each individual item in their possession that depicts child pornography. Possession is a third degree felony, but can be reclassified to a second degree felony, if certain aggravating factors exist. It took the jury less than forty minutes to find Mr. Emery guilty as charged and that an aggravating factor existed to qualify his crimes for the enhancement.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigated the case for over a year. The State of Florida was represented by Assistant State Attorney Phillip Kelley and Assistant State Attorney Sean Crisafulli.
