JACKSONVILLE — A 38-year-old DeLand man has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to produce sexually explicit photos and send them to him, U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announced.
Senior U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Corrigan also ordered Shane Christopher Abrams to serve a 15-year term of supervised release and to register as a sex offender. Abrams pleaded guilty on March 5, 2026.
According to court documents, an undercover FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old child engaged Abrams in a text conversation on a social media application on April 3, 2024. After the agent advised that she was 13 years old, Abrams began asking questions about her body and sexual experience. Between April 4 and April 20, 2024, Abrams and the undercover agent exchanged numerous text messages in which Abrams solicited the child to produce and send him photos of her genitalia, giving explicit instructions on how to comply with his demands. Abrams also sent photos of his own genitalia to the agent he believed was a child.
FBI agents arrested Abrams on May 20, 2024. The case was investigated jointly by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney D. Rodney Brown prosecuted the case out of the Middle District of Florida in Jacksonville.
The prosecution 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.” The program marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children and to identify and rescue victims.
Abrams now faces 15 years of supervised release following his prison term, during which federal authorities will monitor his compliance with sex offender registration requirements.