PENSACOLA — A Florosa couple who sparked an international manhunt after appearing in and posting child pornography videos were sentenced to prison on Monday evening.
Brandon C. Gillreath was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison for his part in a child pornography case that victimized multiple children for more than a year. His wife, Corine Danielle Motley Gillreath, was sentenced to 29½ years.
“I think it’s a fair sentence,” said Chad Berry, resident agent in charge of the Pensacola office of Homeland Security Investigations. “I think it serves the severity of the case. We don’t see a lot of these significant hands-on cases like this and think these sentences are a good deterrent and a good signal that these kinds of cases will be taken seriously.”
Homeland Security Investigations is a division of U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
Police in Denmark notified U.S. authorities after downloading a video featuring an unidentified woman engaging in explicit sexual conduct with a 4- to 5-year-old female victim in December of last year.
Homeland Security obtained a “Jane Doe” arrest warrant and issued a news release featuring a photo and a detailed description of the woman in the video.
A tip that led them to Okaloosa County and Corine Gillreath’s name came in less than 24 hours after the news release went out.
Corine Gillreath was arrested Dec. 19 at a house trailer on Miracle Drive in Florosa after Homeland Security Investigations reached out to the public through social media and other means of mass communication for help identifying the anonymous woman.
She pleaded guilty to one felony count of conspiracy to produce child pornography in March of this year.
As Homeland Security Investigations, along with help from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office and Pensacola Police Department, continued their investigation, Brandon Gillreath’s involvement came to light, Berry said.
Berry added investigators now believe there were seven children victimized in the child pornography scheme, which lasted more than a year.
“That’s why the sentence warranted such a severe time,” Berry said.
Carissa Cutrell, public affairs officer for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency has done several public outreach campaigns this year that have led to an arrest. She urged the public to continue to help.
“The tips we receive from the public are a huge component to solving these cases,” Cutrell said. “If you’re sitting at home and you suspect some kind of suspicious activity is going on, we ask that you call 1-866-DHS-2ICE or visit ice.gov/tips. Really, that’s the only way to rescue these children and really springboard our investigations.”
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.
