ENTERTAINMENT : Cheer's Jerry Harris Sentenced to 12 Years in Prison in Sex Crimes and Child Pornography Case

 

In February, former Cheer star Jerry Harris pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

The former Cheer star was sentenced on July 6 to 12 years in federal prison in his sex crimes and child pornography case, the U.S. Attorney's Office tells E! News. His prison sentence will be followed by eight years of court-supervised release.

Harris pleaded guilty in February to one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. 

According to the plea agreement, the first charge pertains to Harris repeatedly asking a 17-year-old boy to send "sexually explicit photographs and videos" of himself in exchange for approximately $2,000 in 2020. As for the second charge, the plea agreement noted it involves Harris traveling from Dallas, Texas to Orlando, Florida in 2019 "for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct" with a 15-year-old boy. In the plea agreement, Harris admitted to instructing the minor to meet him in a public bathroom, where Harris sexually assaulted him.  

The two charges were among the seven counts Harris faced in a December 2020 indictment for crimes involving four minors in Illinois, Texas and Florida between 2017 and 2020. While Harris initially pleaded not guilty to all seven charges—which also included four counts of sexual exploitation of children and one count of enticement of a child—Harris ended up pleading guilty to the one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor less than two months later. Harris admitted to the other counts as stipulated offenses, and they're expected to be dropped after sentencing. 

Harris has been held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago since September 2020, when he was arrested on one count of producing child pornography. In the criminal complaint, prosecutors said Harris "repeatedly solicited child pornography images and videos" from two twin brothers, who were 14 at the time of the filing, and twice attempted to solicit sexual encounters with one of the siblings at cheer events in 2019. 

According to the complaint, Harris admitted during an interview with law enforcement to repeatedly asking one of the twin brothers for pornographic photos and videos between December 2018 and March 2020 and admitted to the attempts to solicit sexual encounters in 2019. He also "admitted to soliciting and receiving child pornography on Snapchat from at least 10 to 15 other individuals he knew were minors," the complaint continued, and to having sex with a 15-year-old at a cheer event.