BASTROP, La. (KTVE/KARD) — On November 1, 2023, United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that 33-year-old Gary Landon Harper, Jr. of Bastrop, La. was sentenced to serve 25 years in federal prison for the Production of Child Pornography.
The case was the result of an investigation by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) and Ouachita Parish Sheriff’s Office into allegations that Harper was misusing the internet social media application Snapchat to contact minor females in the Monroe area. Their investigation revealed that between January 1, 2021, and October 29, 2021, Harper used Snapchat to communicate with numerous females between the ages of 13 and 16 who attended Monroe-area middle and high schools. Harper would pay some of these females for their Snapchat login information which he would use to impersonate them and direct other females in their contact lists to “friend” accounts that he controlled, under the guise of making money from a “sugar daddy.”
According to reports, Harper would further the scheme by paying females to send him sexually explicit videos and images and to meet up with him for sex. The specific instance related to the charge in the indictment occurred between January and September 2021 when Harper enticed a 16-year-old female victim to meet him and have sex in exchange for $150.
When they met, Harper filmed the pair having sex inside his pickup truck. According to agents, he did this knowing she was a minor at the time. Investigators recovered that video recording from Harper’s cell phone pursuant to a search warrant and positively identified the female victim. Through their investigation, agents learned that Harper victimized over 25 minor females in his heinous schemes.
Harper pleaded guilty to one count of Production of Child Pornography in this case on April 5, 2023.
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