A federal choose Wednesday sentenced Jerry Harris, a previous star of the Netflix documentary series Cheer, to 12 many years in prison for coercing teenage boys to mail him obscene images and films of by themselves and soliciting sexual intercourse from minors at cheerleading competitions.
U.S. District Judge Manish Shah also ordered that the sentence be adopted by 8 decades of courtroom-supervised release.
Shah advised Harris to think about the sentence an “expression of the seriousness of your crimes, tempered with some hope that all is not shed for you or for your victims, and that in the long term some therapeutic can occur.”
Harris, 22, of suburban Naperville, Unwell., pleaded responsible previously this year to just one depend each and every of acquiring little one pornography and travelling with the intention to have interaction in unlawful sexual perform.
A prosecutor experienced requested for a sentence of 15 yrs adopted by 10 many years of supervised launch while legal professionals for Harris sought a sentence of 6 yrs and eight years of supervised launch.
Harris apologized to victims
Prior to finding out his sentence, Harris apologized to his victims, declaring, “I am deeply sorry for all the trauma my abuse has caused you. I pray deep down that your suffering will come to an conclusion.”
“I’m not an evil individual,” Harris explained. “I am still learning who I am and what my reason is.”
Harris has been in custody at a federal detention facility.
Sarah Klein, a attorney for two of the victims, issued a statement declaring Harris’s guilt was “firmly recognized.”
“The sentence he gained reflects the severity of his crimes and the lifetime of agony his victims will go through,” Klein reported.
Arrested on boy or girl pornography fees in 2020
Harris was arrested in September 2020 on a charge of manufacturing of child pornography. Prosecutors alleged at the time that he solicited movies and visuals from two 14-calendar year-outdated brothers.
According to a complaint, federal prosecutors stated that Harris admitted to regularly asking a small teenager for pornographic videos and illustrations or photos between December 2018 and March 2020.
Then in December of that year, he was indicted on additional charges alleging misconduct in Illinois, Florida and Texas. According to the indictment, Harris allegedly solicited intercourse from minors at cheerleading competitions and persuaded teenage boys to ship him obscene photographs and films of them selves.
Harris admitted to FBI agents to asking a teenage boy to send out him lewd photographs of himself, and to requesting little one pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 others he knew to be minors, according to the indictment.
Cheer was a big success when it was unveiled in January 2020 and Harris grew to become wildly well-liked for his upbeat angle and his encouraging “mat chat.” Harris even interviewed celebrities on the crimson carpet at the Academy Awards for The Ellen DeGeneres Show.
The docuseries follows the competitive cheerleading squad from Navarro College or university in Corsicana, Texas.
