A 19-year-old Ocala man is behind bars after Marion County sheriff’s detectives reported finding child pornography files on his cell phone and desktop computer.
Detectives responded to Jacob Thomas Chabot’s residence, located at 8 Springs Pass Dr., on Thursday morning after receiving a tip last month from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The agency reported that a user with an email address that included Chatbot’s last name in it and a screen name of jchatbot2000 had used the social media application Kik to upload nine files of child sexual abuse material. The IP address for the residence also was provided and Comcast was identified as the service provider, a sheriff’s office report states.
Detectives spoke with Chabot’s parents, who were staying at the residence with their son while their daughter is at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville with her newborn baby. Both denied any knowledge of child pornography being in the residence and said the Wi-Fi at the home is password protected.
After being read his rights, Chabot said he had been staying at the residence with his sister since March and his parents were house-sitting while his sister is in the hospital. He admitted to previously having an email address that included his last name but said he hadn’t used it in several years. He also denied having a Kik account, the report says.
Chabot told detectives that he had a desktop computer and a smartphone, both of which were password protected. He said the Wi-Fi at the residence also was password protected and no one else knows his passwords or uses his electronic devices, the report says.
Chabot initially denied owning any child pornography but later told detectives that he had recently downloaded some files “out of curiosity.” A digital forensics technician located “several files of child pornography” on Chabot’s desktop computer and 20 files on his Samsung Galaxy S10 cell phone, the report says.
Chabot was transported to the Marion County Jail and charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography. He was being held on $56,000 bond and his next court date hasn’t yet been set, jail records show.