A Florida man, with no prior criminal record, is looking at spending the rest of his life in prison, after a judge sentenced him to 100 years for possession of child pornography. The story is reported in the St. Augustine Record.
The sentencing came nearly two months after a jury found Jesse Graham Berben guilty on 20 counts of possession of child pornography at the end of a two-day February trial.
Berben, who maintained his innocence even through his sentencing hearing Wednesday, was arrested by St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office detectives in April 2015 after authorities obtained a search warrant for his Washington Street apartment — where he was living with his father at the time — and finding files containing the pornography on his computer.
The 100 year sentence is more than four times longer than the minimum sentence he could have received, and was longer than prosecutors asked for.