Source: United States Department of Justice News
TUCSON, Ariz. – Jahara William Byfield, 23, of Sunrise, Florida, was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Jennifer G. Zipps to 60 months in prison. Byfield previously pleaded guilty to Possession of Child Pornography and Threatening to Assault or Murder a Federal Employee.
Byfield was a U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona for training when he was arrested on August 28, 2020, after an investigation revealed he had used his cellphones to obtain images and videos depicting children, including pre-pubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct. After his arrest, Byfield was placed on pretrial release with conditions that included computer monitoring. On December 3, 2020, Byfield pleaded guilty to one count of Possession of Child Pornography.
On April 15, 2021, while on release pending sentencing, Byfield threatened to kill everyone involved with the computer monitoring program. His pretrial release was subsequently revoked, and on June 23, 2021, Byfield was charged in an indictment for the threats he made towards those supervising him. On December 20, 2021, Byfield pleaded guilty to a charge of Threatening to Assault or Murder a Federal Employee.
Upon release from prison, Byfield will be placed on lifetime supervised release. He will also be required to register as a sex offender and to complete a sex offender treatment program.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
Homeland Security Investigations, Sierra Vista Police Department, Army Criminal Investigation Division, and the U.S. Marshals Service conducted the investigations in this case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Carin C. Duryee and Brian E. Kasprzyk, District of Arizona, handled the prosecution.
CASE NUMBER: CR-20-02748-TUC-JGZ; CR-21-01461-TUC-JGZ
RELEASE NUMBER: 2022- 040_Byfield
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For more information on the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, visit http://www.justice.gov/usao/az/
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