JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A St. Augustine man has pleaded guilty to using a child to produce a sexually explicit video, stemming from a 2021 arrest.
Christopher Lee Smith, 42, faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 25 years, up to 50 years, in federal prison and a potential life term of supervised release, according to the U.S. Middle District of Florida Court.
Smith was arrested on Sept. 2, 2021, and has been detained since then.
Smith is a registered child sex offender, having been convicted of traveling to meet a child to commit a sex offense on January 10, 2012.
According to court documents, on June 28, 2021, Smith engaged in online conversation using a social media application with an undercover FBI agent who was posing as the parent of a minor child. Smith advised the undercover agent that he wanted to have sex with the “child” and discussed in detail the sexual acts that he wished to perform on the child.
On Aug. 30, Smith and the undercover agent engaged in another online conversation on the app during which Smith advised he had previously sexually abused a particular child, and he sent a video to the undercover agent that depicted this child being sexually abused by an adult male, according to prosecutors. Through further investigation, FBI agents were able to identify both Smith and the child, the court said.
FBI agents arrested Smith and seized his cellphone. A search of the phone revealed that Smith had been engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with this same child for several months. He drove to meet the child at a retail store in St. Johns County and took the child back to his residence on July 31. Authorities said Smith used the child to produce a video showing Smith sexually abusing the child and he later sent several clips of this sexual abuse video to the child by text message.
A sentencing date for Smith has not been set, the release said.