GULFPORT, Miss. (WJTV) – A Long Beach man pled guilty on April 18 to producing and distributing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

According to court documents, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) in Gulfport learned that Jason Leonard Rhodes, 47, had sexual contact with three minor boys in February 2023. With that information, the FBI and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Cybercrime Division, conducted a search warrant at Rhodes’ home on February 8, 2023.

During the search warrant, the FBI said they found various electronic devices belonging to Rhodes. A forensic examiner found videos of Rhodes engaged in sexually explicit conduct with minors. Investigators said the forensic examiner also found chats between Rhodes and others in which Rhodes sent some of those videos to other people as well as videos of other children being sexually abused.

During the search warrant, Rhodes gave a confession to law enforcement, admitting to videoing himself engaged in sexually explicit conduct with the minors and to sending out pictures and videos of children being sexually abused.

Rhodes is scheduled to be sentenced August 26, 2025, and faces up to 30 years in prison for each count of producing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and up to twenty years on the count of distributing images and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.