Tampa, Florida – Donald Max Ingram (70, Illinois) has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing and viewing images of children being sexually abused as he traveled onboard a commercial flight to Florida.
Ingram had pleaded guilty on May 18, 2021.
According to court documents, on September 14, 2020, Ingram was on board a domestic flight to Florida when another passenger observed Ingram viewing child sex abuse material on his cellphone. The passenger alerted law enforcement when the plane landed at St. Pete – Clearwater International Airport. Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office deputies assigned to the airport detained Ingram and requested assistance from the FBI. During an interview, Ingram admitted that he had used his cellphone to access and view child sex abuse images and consented to a search of his phone. A subsequent forensic analysis of Ingram’s cellphone revealed that he possessed 59 images depicting children being sexually abused. Some of the images depicted children younger than 12 years old.
The court also ordered Ingram to forfeit the electronic devices used in the commission of the offense, serve a lifetime term of supervised release, and register as a sex offender. As part of his sentence, the court also ordered Ingram to pay $3,000 in restitution to the victims of the offense.
