A 52-year-old man is being charged with multiple felonies after authorities executed a search warrant at his residence in Sanford and found dozens of images depicting children performing sexual acts.
Sanford Police Department detectives were tipped off in May by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Google had intercepted 221 files containing child sexual abuse material. The images were all linked to Taylor Johnson, and a subpoena returned an address at the Warley Park Apartments in Sanford.
In June, authorities obtained a Google search warrant, which confirmed numerous amounts of child sexual abuse materials within an account associated with Taylor.
On July 11, a residential search warrant was drafted for Taylor’s apartment. Law enforcement authorities executed that search warrant on July 12. During their search, authorities seized a dozen cellphones, a tablet, an Amazon stick, two thumb drives, and multiple other items.
During their search, one of the phones that was seized showed a screensaver of two prepubescent, unknown females, according to an arrest report filed in Seminole County. The females in the screen saver were naked, kneeling, and exposing their genitalia.
During an interview with Taylor, he told police that he no longer wanted to live and was attempting to take his life prior to the arrival of law enforcement.
Medical personnel admitted Johnson under a baker act, and several weeks passed before he spoke with police again.
On August 1, after a multi-week examination of the materials that were seized, authorities visited Johnson at his apartment complex in SAnford.
When confronted about the materials, Johnson originally told authorities that he was not the owner of the devices that were seized and advised that his friend was responsible. That friend, who Johnson claimed had been living with him, was evicted in September 2022.
Authorities confirmed with Johnson that the tip regarding the child pornographic materials was received in May 2023, several months after his friend was evicted and no longer living in the apartment.
Johnson eventually admitted to searching for the images and told police he did not think it was “illegal to view these types of images.” Authorities told Johnson that they had located several screenshots of sexual abuse material within his devices and through their Google search warrant.
Johnson was placed under arrest and transported to the John E. Polk Correctional Facility in Seminole County. He is being charged with ten counts of possession of child pornography.