Man entered a guilty plea to child pornography charges

Billings, Montana – U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said that a former teacher at Judith Gap School came forward on Friday and admitted to owning child pornography. This came after Facebook provided information to the police about the likely trafficking of the content on their system.

Jayson Gayo, age 27, from Harlowton, entered a guilty plea to the charge of possessing child pornography as outlined in the indictment. Gayo may be sentenced to a maximum of twenty years in jail, a fine of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and five years of supervised release.

In court and in court papers, federal prosecutors made the allegation that in August of 2020, Facebook sent a series of Cybertips after detecting the potential transmission of child pornography on its system. Based on the information that was found, the account that sent child pornography was linked to the Judith Gap School and Gayo’s apartment in Judith Gap, where he worked as a teacher.

There was no evidence to suggest that students at the school were involved in either the images or Gayo’s conduct.

Investigators obtained various electronic media items after searching Gayo’s apartment in accordance with a search warrant. After examining the materials, they discovered that they included more than 400 photographs and films of child pornography. When Facebook was given a search warrant for Gayo’s account, more proof that child pornographic content had been uploaded from that account was found.

Susan P. Watters, U.S. District Judge ordered Gayo remanded in custody until further proceedings.