SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A Seminole County man accused of posing as a filmmaker to lure girls to an abandoned home to rape and kill them has been sentenced to 885 years in prison on child pornography charges.
Prosecutors asked the judge to give Shawn Thomas, 31, life in prison.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrested Thomas last summer after an informant told agents that Thomas was planning to pose as a filmmaker in order to lure girls to an abandoned home to rape and kill them.
Slideshow: Evidence in alleged murder-rape plot case
Audio: FDLE interview with Thomas' former roommate
But Monday's sentencing was only for the child pornography that law enforcement found on his computer.
Thomas' defense attorney said his client should not get life because he does not have a criminal history, and his mother asked the judge for mercy in court.
Thomas' mother, Diane Luther, told the judge her son was physically abused by his father when he was a child, and that he suffered from depression.
"He would come home from work in a bad mood and just take it out on him. He would pick him up, [and] slam him up against the wall. We have marks in our wall where his head was at," Luther said.
State agents said Thomas was not only interested in watching child pornography, they said he also wanted to make his own.
Florida agents believe Thomas was going to film the child rape, sell it, and the kill the children and their families to cover it all up.
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WFTV
