Comic book author sentenced to 6 years for child porn in San Francisco

San Francisco resident Gerard Jones wrote stories for Marvel and DC Comics — most notably the Green Lantern — produced screenplays for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, taught classes at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto and wrote non-fiction books. He was sentenced to six years in prison on August 14, 2018, for distribution and possession of child pornography. less San Francisco resident Gerard Jones wrote stories for Marvel and DC Comics — most notably the Green Lantern — produced screenplays for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox, taught classes at the San Francisco ... more Photo: San Francisco Police Department / San Francisco Police Department Photo: San Francisco Police Department / San Francisco Police Department Image 1 of / 15 Caption Close Comic book author sentenced to 6 years for child porn in San Francisco 1 / 15 Back to Gallery

A San Francisco resident and comic book writer was sentenced to six years in prison on Tuesday for distributing and possessing child pornography, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Vince Chhabria sentenced Gerard Jones to a five-year period of supervised release and ordered Jones to pay an assessment of $10,200. Another hearing is scheduled for October 4 to determine the amount of restitution to be paid to his victims.

Jones, who turned 61 years old in July, will begin serving his sentence on November 30.

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Jones wrote stories for Marvel and DC Comics — most notably the Green Lantern — produced screenplays for Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox and wrote non-fiction books.

The year before his arrest he had been teaching writing classes for the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, where he had been a member for years.

In recent years, he produced nonfiction books, including an award-winning book on the history of comic books and a more controversial one on the benefits of violent entertainment for children.

Jones was arrested on September 13, 2016 at his Mission Bay home, where police found six electronic devices in his bedroom that contained 819 images of babies and toddlers, some showing sexual acts being performed on them, according to court documents.

Records show officers initially received a cyber tip generated by Google because a YouTube account holder uploaded a video to a private channel depicting a girl who appeared to be approximately 8-12 years old, wearing a mask, being sexually abused by an adult male and an adult female. Google also provided an email address associated with the account hold — 8-is-the-new-18@gmx.com — and officers geo-located the data for the IP address and confirmed Jones' identity using law enforcement databases.

According to court documents, during the search of his home Jones told officers, "I'm assuming why you're here is there is evidence that I downloaded pictures of children, naked pictures, sexually suggestive pictures of children, and, yeah, that's why I think you're here."

However, Jones initially entered a not guilty plea and began soliciting letters of support from religious leaders, businessmen, writers and other comic book creators. But after more than a year of maintaining his innocence, he changed his plea to guilty in late March as his trial was set to begin.

Prosecutors said Jones admitted that the youngest child depicted in his collection was approximately three years old— evidence that Jones was not an unwitting possessor of these images.

"Thanks for all the subscriptions and comments! I'll keep uploading if people want more," Jones wrote in the description of a video he uploaded depicting a prepubescent victim being sexually abused in a sadistic fashion, according to court records.

Jones had no criminal history, but before his investigation and arrest, he was investigated for sex tourism and distribution of child pornography in 2014, according to court records.

U.S. attorneys unsuccessfully sought to remand him after he admitted guilt, citing evidence that he was "not merely a collector and distributor," but Jones was released from custody on $250,000 bond with a home monitored curfew and ankle bracelet.

The prosecution was the result of a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and SFPD Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC).