A 53-year-old man, Samuel Arthur Thompson, of St. Augustine, has been sentenced to 220 years in federal prison for a series of crimes, including producing child sexual abuse material and hacking the jumbotron at the Jacksonville Jaguars stadium. The sentencing took place in Jacksonville after Thompson was convicted in November on multiple charges.
Thompson's criminal activities included producing, receiving, and possessing sexual images of children, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, sending unauthorized damaging commands to a protected computer, and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. His arrest in early 2020 followed his deportation from the Philippines back to the U.S., where he had fled after the FBI executed a search warrant at his home and seized several computers.
Court records revealed that Thompson had a prior conviction for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998, which required him to register as a sex offender and report any international travel. Despite this, the Jacksonville Jaguars hired Thompson as a contractor in 2013 to work on their video board network. However, his contract was not renewed in 2018 when the team discovered his criminal history and sex offender status.
Before his contract ended, Thompson installed remote access software on a server in the Jaguars' server room, allowing him to remotely access computers controlling the jumbotron during games in the 2018 season. This caused malfunctions in the video boards until the team identified the issue and removed the unauthorized access.
The FBI traced the intrusions back to Thompson's home, leading to a search warrant in July 2019. During the raid, agents seized electronic devices containing thousands of images and hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse, some of which Thompson had produced himself. Additionally, a firearm was found in his possession, which he was prohibited from having as a convicted felon.
The Jacksonville Jaguars released a statement expressing gratitude to federal prosecutors for their work on the case following Thompson's conviction in November.
