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SAN ANTONIO — A man from Indiana is going to federal prison for the next 30 years in a child sex crime case.
Gerald Brann, 43, of Valparaiso, shared sexual pictures of a 10-year-old child online between December 25th, 2022, and January 4th, 2023. Some of the pictures showed the child as young as five wearing sexually explicit clothes.
Police obtained Brann’s electronics during a search of his and Veronica Solis’ home in Valparaiso. Those electronics also had sexual pictures of children, as well as videos. Some of the child sex material was made while Brann and Solis lived in San Antonio, Texas, which is where they were both federally charged.
Gerald Brann was arrested March 23rd of last year in New Jersey, and he eventually pled guilty to sexual exploitation of children in November. Veronica Solis was also arrested and pled guilty to one count of sexual exploitation of children. She faces 15 to 30 years in prison.
“The sexual abuse and exploitation of children is an absolutely horrific offense,” said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas in a Thursday press release, “my office continues to prioritize the most vulnerable victims in our society, and the court’s sentence of the statutory maximum penalty is appropriate for offenders like Gerald Brann, who go to great lengths to wreak havoc on the lives of innocent children. I also thank our partners at the FBI San Antonio and FBI Indianapolis field offices for their collaboration to investigate this case with Indiana State Police.”
Brann will also have to pay restitution of $100,000 with $10,000 under the Amy, Vicky, and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018. That’s a federal law the changes the process in determining restitution in a child exploitation case.
