Orlando Man Sentenced to More Than 12 Years for Distributing Child Pornography

ORLANDO, FL—U.S. Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell yesterday sentenced Samuel Shamba Warlick (40, Orlando) to 12 years and six months in federal prison for distributing child pornography. The court also ordered Warlick to forfeit the computers he used to distribute and store the child pornography. As part of his sentence, Warlick was also ordered to serve a 20-year term of supervised release after he completes his prison sentence.

Warlick pled guilty on May 27, 2011.

According to court documents, Warlick distributed 40 pictures and six videos depicting prepubescent boys engaged in sexually explicit activity, to a law enforcement officer acting in an undercover capacity. Law enforcement officers arrested Warlick and seized his computers pursuant to a search warrant. Warlick admitted that he had been downloading and trading child pornography for at least the past 10 years. In addition, he admitted to posing as a teenager online and engaging minor boys in sexual conversation in order to persuade them into sending him nude pictures. Law enforcement officers searched Warlick’s computers and found more than 1,200 pictures and 343 videos of child pornography involving prepubescent children.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov and click on the tab “other resources.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.