Fort Myers, Florida – U.S. District Judge Thomas P. Barber today sentenced Doron Markowitz (50, Port Charlotte) to 20 years in federal prison for producing images depicting the sexual abuse of a child. The court also sentenced Markowitz to a lifetime of supervised release and ordered him to register as a sex offender. Markowitz had pleaded guilty on August 16, 2023.
According to court documents, between August 23 and September 2, 2022, Markowitz produced images of a minor being sexually abused. In September 2022, the mother of a 13-year-old minor learned of the sexual abuse and contacted law enforcement to report Markowitz. The minor described an incident in which the minor believed that Markowitz had used his cellphone to take a photo of the minor being sexually abused. Shortly thereafter, Markowitz was located in Port Charlotte and his cellphone was seized by law enforcement.
On September 6, 2022, during an interview with law enforcement, Markowitz admitted that he had sexually abused the minor at least 10 times. The following day, law enforcement obtained a search warrant for Markowitz’s cellphone. A subsequent forensic analysis of his cellphone revealed four images depicting the sexual abuse of the minor. The images had been taken on August 23 and September 2, 2022.
This case was investigated the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Fort Myers Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava.
This is another case 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. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.