Away from wife and kids, man amassed 'worst' collection of child porn prosecutor has seen

Yahoo

10-02-2025

Editor's note: This story contains descriptions of child sexual abuse that some readers may find disturbing.
WEST PALM BEACH — A man who bragged online about molesting his young relatives and who shared videos depicting the rape of newborns, infants and toddlers appeared in court Tuesday with the full support of his family behind him.
His wife wept and told him she loved him. His aunt rolled her eyes and shook her head, her animus directed not at the 38-year-old man slated for prison but at the prosecutor poised to send him there.
"James Latta, by all accounts, is one of the worst online offenders that this court will probably ever see," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Schiller.
Latta pleaded guilty in November to advertising and distributing child pornography, charges for which he faced up to 50 years in federal prison. He returned to a West Palm Beach courtroom armed with 21 supportive letters from his friends and family — including a child who denied Latta's claims that he molested her — and begged a judge to be merciful.
He was. After remarking on the "unusually graphic" and "horrendous" nature of the videos and images that Latta amassed but did not himself create, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said he deserved a lower sentence than "people who have actually physically abused children."
He sentenced Latta to 20 years in prison, 30 fewer than prosecutors wanted.
The judge's decision comes almost one year after Latta, a construction worker from Texas, connected online with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent stationed in West Palm Beach. Latta invited the agent, posing as the mother of an 8-year-old, into an "anything goes" chatroom he created on the online messaging application KiK.
There, prosecutors said Latta shared hundreds of images of children being sexually abused — including a child who appeared to be only a few days old. Schiller, who has prosecuted online offenders for 15 years, told Middlebrooks the images were among the worst he's seen.
"Autopsy photos would look great compared to these," he said.
Latta also sent explicit videos of himself to the undercover officer along with requests that she show them to her child. Often away from his own wife and children on long-term construction projects, Latta once described building apartments next to a daycare center, where he said he wanted to "hop the fence and have real fun."
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According to court records, Latta told members of the chatroom he molested a young relative from infancy to elementary school age, stopping only after the child's mother said "she was getting too old to shower with me anymore." Latta told the undercover agent that at a recent family gathering, he molested a different family member under the guise of changing her diaper.
Latta's relatives who attended the gathering said he was never alone with the child in question, and prosecutors conceded that they found no evidence of physical sexual abuse. Defense attorney Howard Sohn maintained that the messages were mere fantasy, fed by a community of like-minded people and compounded by untreated depression, alcohol abuse and isolation from his family.
"Did he say things that were just ridiculously stupid and disgusting? Yes, no argument from this side," said Sohn, a Boynton Beach attorney. "But it's just talk."
To Schiller, the distinction meant little. He said Latta directed a Michigan mother in the chatroom to film herself sexually abusing her 4-year-old son over a two-year period.
"They say that he didn't produce his own child sexual abuse material, and he didn't touch a child," Schiller said. "He got everyone else to do it."
Schiller said agents intended to identify and arrest other users within the chatroom before apprehending Latta, its leader, so as not to tip off other potential predators. However, Latta's promise to rape a child at a family cabin prompted immediate action.
Agents arrested Latta the following day, on Aug. 30. The child was not with him at the cabin, but, in her absence, prosecutors said Latta filmed himself engaged in inappropriate behavior with the family dog.
"This is a very unusual case," Middlebrooks said Tuesday. "In almost every case, the defendant has basically lived an isolated life."
It was clear by the show of support in the courtroom gallery that this was not the case. Latta's friends and family, some of whom flew from Texas to attend the hearing, described him as a loving father, a husband who "spoils his wife something terrible" and a man who "messed up bad."
"Jimmy needs help, not prison," his mother, Lesa Latta, told the judge. "If I catch the rabbit that led him down that deep, dark hell hole, Jimmy will be visiting me in prison."
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Latta's wife declined to speak but said in a letter to Middlebrooks that investigators "made him to be a monster, but he is not."
"I chose him and still choose him, because I know his true heart," Lisa Latta wrote.
Their daughter wrote a letter asking Middlebrooks to "please bring my dad home soon."
"I know that he messed up. He shared videos that were inappropriate," she said. "My mom said they were really bad, but he is my dad and I want him home. He needs a time out and to lose his phone privileges for a while."
She'll be in her early 30s by the time his sentence ends.
To report an incident of online exploitation, contact the confidential tip line at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) , or use the online reporting form https://southfloridaicac.org/report-a-tip/.
Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at [e-mail]. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge sentences man for 'unusually graphic,' 'horrendous' child pornography