St. Lucie County Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

MIAMI- A St. Lucie County man was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for production of visual depictions of sexual exploitation of a minor, after pleading guilty in May 2024.

Between November 2022 and January 2023, Luis Escoto, 28, of Port St. Lucie, engaged in sexual intercourse with a 17-year-old when he was about 26 or 27 years old in St. Lucie and Martin counties. Escoto recorded the sexual interactions with the minor victim using his cellphone and convinced the victim to send him sexually explicit pictures through text messages and communication platforms. In February 2023, Martin County Sheriff's Office detectives arrested Escoto, when he showed up, thinking he was going to have sex, after texting with an undercover detective who had been posing as the minor.

U.S. District Judge David S. Liebowitz, sitting in Fort Pierce, sentenced Escoto to prison, to be followed by 15 years of supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami, and Sheriff William D. Snyder of the Martin County Sheriff's Office announced the sentence.

HSI Fort Pierce and the Martin County Sheriff's Office investigated the case. Managing Assistant U.S. Attorney Carmen Lineberger prosecuted it.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 23-cr-14024.

###