Orlando, Florida – United States District Judge Wendy W. Berger has sentenced Derremy Jerrell Walker (31, Sanford) to 60 years in federal prison for two counts of using, or attempting to use, children to produce sexually explicit videos. A federal jury had found Walker guilty of the offenses on June 29, 2021. Walker was also ordered to serve a lifetime term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.
According to evidence admitted during the trial and at sentencing, Walker was a contracted janitor at Oviedo High School in November 2019 when two 15-year-old female students discovered an actively recording cellphone hidden under the sink in a student bathroom stall. The girls took the phone to school administrators, who contacted the Oviedo Police Department.
Forensic analysis of the cellphone revealed that Walker had placed the phone in the same location on two prior dates in November 2019, each time creating a one-hour video of students in that stall. On the date the girls found the phone, it had been recording for approximately 15 minutes before they discovered it. In each of the three instances, Walker had angled the cellphone’s camera in an effort to capture images of the genitalia of those in the stall. School administrators and law enforcement officials were able to identify 8 of the 12 students unknowingly captured in the videos that Walker recorded.
Further analysis revealed that Walker had also set up a surreptitious cellphone camera to record in the school’s faculty bathroom earlier that month.
“Mr. Walker did more than just produce horror; he stole the innocence and trust of these young victims. We are pleased with the sentence handed down in this case and will continue efforts to protect the children in our communities from sexual exploitation and abuse,” said FBI Tampa Division Special Agent in Charge Michael McPherson.
This case was investigated by the Oviedo Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn P. Napier.
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