Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shalom Ishrael Maurol Barnes, 20, will serve seven years in state prison and then 10 years on sexual offender probation after pleading nolo contendere to 10 charges related to child pornography.
Original arrest
Barnes was first arrested on August 21, 2025, following a Gainesville Police Department investigation into a CyberTip involving five videos identified as child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, that had been uploaded through a Discord account.
According to the investigation, a search warrant served on Discord yielded details about the account creator as well as records from a chat allegedly used to distribute child pornography, where the five videos were shared. Discord also reportedly turned over a private message in which the account sought a specific type of illegal video involving an adult female and a pre-pubescent male; investigators said one of the five videos provided by Discord matched that request.
Investigators traced the activity to Barnes’ apartment at Gainesville Place Apartments, located at 2800 SW 35th Place. The University of Florida Police Department later confirmed Barnes was enrolled as a UF student and had an address at Gainesville Place Apartments. Authorities also connected a phone number used to create multiple accounts associated with Barnes, including the Discord account at the center of the case.
After being advised of his Miranda rights, Barnes reportedly told investigators he created the Discord account while trying out for the University of Florida basketball team because Discord was used to communicate with players. He allegedly said he did not remember sending the five videos in the group chat because the activity had occurred nearly a year earlier. When asked when he had most recently shared CSAM, Barnes reportedly said he did not “do that stuff” anymore but had viewed CSAM on Twitter about two months earlier.
Plea agreement
On July 21, Barnes entered a plea of nolo contendere to five counts of possession of child pornography (a lesser included offense) and five counts of directing or promoting a sexual performance by a child; five counts of soliciting child pornography were dropped as part of the plea agreement. According to the plea document, the maximum sentence for the charges is 100 years in prison.
Judge Susanne Wilson Bullard sentenced Barnes to five concurrent sentences of five years in prison with credit for 22 days served for the possession counts, followed by five concurrent sentences of two years for the charges of directing or promoting a sexual performance by a child. The prison sentence will be followed by 10 years of sexual offender probation, and he will be designated as a Sexual Offender.
