A 34-year-old Willis man pleaded guilty in federal court Thursday to producing and distributing child sexual abuse material, admitting he sexually abused a 7-year-old family member for years while documenting the abuse in photos and videos. Jesse Thomas Raines was identified through an undercover investigation that traced illicit content shared across an internet chat application back to June 2023.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, Raines tried to convince investigators he was not saving the chats by sharing screenshot folders as proof — a move that instead revealed identifying details and led agents straight to his Willis home with a search warrant. Homeland Security Investigations Houston and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assisted federal agents in unmasking him, the office said.
Federal prosecutors said a forensic search of an external drive recovered from Raines turned up files created between March 2019 and May 2023, all stored in a folder bearing the victim's name. The discovery laid bare years of documented abuse that investigators say Raines carried out against a child relative.
A Federal Case Built on Digital Missteps
The prosecution was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 that pools federal, state, and local law enforcement resources to combat child sexual exploitation. The program is led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices working alongside the Justice Department's Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, per the same account.
Under federal law — specifically 18 U.S.C. § 2251 — producing child sexual abuse material carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years for a first offense, according to RAINN. Repeat offenders face enhanced mandatory sentences ranging from 25 years to life imprisonment. Beyond prison time, federal law requires anyone convicted of these offenses to undergo supervised release afterward — often five years to life — and register permanently on public sex offender registries, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. Those supervised release terms typically place strict limits on internet use and contact with minors.
Part of a Pattern in Montgomery County
Raines' case joins a string of similarly severe federal prosecutions tied to Montgomery County in recent years. In May 2024, 39-year-old Montgomery County resident James Aubrey Zachary Wasson was sentenced in the Southern District of Texas to 30 years in federal prison for sexual exploitation and production of CSAM involving a minor, after uploading more than 500 CSAM files, including self-produced imagery.
Years earlier, in September 2019, 41-year-old New Caney resident Joshua James Holmstedt was sentenced to 34 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to producing and possessing child pornography, following explicit social media chat sessions that led to his arrest. Hoodline previously reported on a related Montgomery County case involving a Conroe youth pastor's arrest after thousands of child sex abuse files were seized following a CyberTip.
Regional Enforcement Data
Enforcement activity of this kind is not isolated to Montgomery County. In June 2026, a federal jury in the Southern District of Texas convicted a 45-year-old Clear Lake Shores resident on charges of possessing and accessing child sexual abuse material after a two-day trial, with agents discovering nearly 2,000 images and explicit videos hidden on laptops during a residential search, FOX 26 Houston reported. That same station also reported that a 47-year-old League City man was sentenced in April 2026 to 30 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges involving the production, receipt, and purchase of child sexual abuse material, having solicited explicit livestreams of young children from overseas.
Data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse showed that Project Safe Childhood cases made up 2.9% of all federal convictions in the Southern District of Texas in June 2026, with the Department of Homeland Security serving as the lead investigative agency in 64% of overall convictions. The figures underscore how frequently this type of case moves through a district that ranks among the busiest federal jurisdictions in the country.
No sentencing date for Raines was disclosed in the announcement. Under the statute he pleaded guilty to, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison, with the possibility of a term stretching well beyond that minimum once a judge weighs the full scope of the case.
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