A Lehigh Acres man convicted of child pornography-related charges has been sentenced to six decades behind bars.
Attorney General James Uthmeier announced this week that his Statewide Prosecution Office has secured a 60-year prison sentence for a 38-year-old man who was convicted of the charges in November.
Phuc Minh Tran was sentenced Monday after his conviction on 40 counts of child pornography possession.
Tran, 38, was found guilty on Nov. 10, and sentencing was issued this week in a case that began more than a year ago. He’ll spend his sentence in a Florida Department of Corrections prison.
“Instead of getting coal in his stocking, this child predator will spend his next 60 Christmases behind bars,” said Uthmeier in a news release. “Justice was delivered with this sentence. I thank Assistant Statewide Prosecutor Agnieszka Thomas and Deputy Statewide Prosecutor Julie Chaikin for putting this predator where he belongs.”
Tran was arrested initially on Aug. 15, 2024, after Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents executed a search warrant at his residence. They were tipped off when the FDLE cyber squad picked up clues that he was downloading child pornography on his computer in his Southwest Florida home.
The trial of Tran lasted a week before a jury. The panel found Tran guilty on all 40 counts. All were felony charges. They included multiple counts of second-degree possession, control of, or intentionally viewing child pornography.
Uthmeier’s office has stepped up prosecutions of high-profile suspected child offenders in recent months.
A 35-year-old Oxford man was charged with multiple felonies in connection with a Florida Office of Statewide Prosecution investigation into online sexual abuse materials.
Uthmeier said in a news release earlier this month that investigators focused on Brent Wells and his activity on the online platform Snapchat at his home in the Central Florida town just west of The Villages. Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) agents initiated the investigation on Dec. 3 after getting a cyber tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about sexual abuse materials being uploaded on Wells’ Snapchat account.
The FDLE agents and investigators with Uthmeier’s Office of Statewide Prosecution executed a search warrant at Wells’ home in Oxford on Dec. 5. That action also included seizing Wells’ cellphone. Uthmeier said that resulted in finding more digital files depicting sexual acts with children and animals.
Meanwhile, A Hernando County man was indicted by a grand jury on multiple charges related to allegations he committed sexual battery on a child under 12 in November.
Thirty-six-year-old Nathan Douglas Holmberg had indictments on 25 criminal counts returned against him after an extensive investigation by the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office and the Office of Statewide Prosecution, Uthmeier announced last month. The indictments include seven charges of capital sexual battery on a child under 12.
Uthmeier said his statewide prosecutors will seek the death penalty against Holmberg.
