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BY JENNIFER CABRERA
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Shalom Jeemai Wilkins Gildin, 31, was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with nine counts of possession of child pornography and one count of sharing child pornography.
A Gainesville Police Department (GPD) report states that they received a “CyberTipline Report” on August 24, 2021 related to child exploitation. The tip included one video of child sexual abuse material that was uploaded to Kik on July 27, 2021, and then shared with one or more users in a private chat.
The IP address that was used to upload the video reportedly belonged to a Cox Business address in Gainesville; the report redacted the owner of the account. Two other IP addresses, one a home AT&T account and the other a wireless Verizon account, were also used to log in to the account.
GPD executed a search warrant of Gildin’s apartment on May 25, 2022, and Gildin reportedly told them that the Kik account is not his and that he was certain that no evidence of the account would be found on his phone. However, GPD reported that a digital forensic analysis of Gildin’s phone found nine different child sexual abuse images and 39 different images that could be classified as child erotica or age-questionable. GPD also reported that a screenshot of the Kik account, logged in, was on the cell phone.
Gildin has two previous felony charges of cocaine possession in 2015 and 2020, and adjudication of guilt was withheld for both. In the 2020 case, he was sentenced in January of 2021 to 120 days in jail and 18 months of drug offender probation, which he successfully completed last month. Letters of support in that case are from a local attorney, a best-selling author and influencer in the fitness field who said she met him in Costa Rica, and Olympic swimmer Ryan Lochte, who described Gildin as his “right-hand man” and “best friend.” Lochte wrote, “I can assure you that this will be the last time Shalom is in trouble with the law.”
Gildin is being held on $150,00 bail.
Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
