A Port Charlotte man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to 10 counts involving child sexual abuse material, capping an investigation that began when a cyber-tip flagged illegal images tied to his devices. John De Angelis was also sentenced separately to 210.675 months in prison for stalking and installing a tracking device on a woman's car, with that sentence running concurrently to the CSAM case.
De Angelis entered an open plea to the court in both cases, meaning he pleaded guilty directly to a judge without a negotiated agreement from prosecutors, according to the ABC7 WWSB report on the sentencing. That open plea waived his right to a jury trial, per the state attorney's office, so the case did not go before a jury. Detectives say he was actively viewing child sexual abuse material on a live device the moment they entered his home to execute a search warrant on December 1, 2024, and he immediately confessed to his online activities, according to the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office.
The case traces back to a Microsoft Bing cyber-tip about possible illegal material on an electronic device, which a Charlotte County Sheriff's Office detective investigated as part of an FBI Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, per WWSB's reporting. That single tip was far from isolated — between February and November 2024, detectives and the task force received 39 separate cyber-tips regarding potential CSAM linked to De Angelis before authorities obtained a warrant for his home on Newnan Circle in Port Charlotte, the sheriff's office says.
What Investigators Found Inside the Home
When detectives searched the residence, they seized several electronic devices and found child sexual abuse material on De Angelis's phone and on an Xbox video game system, according to WWSB. His phone alone contained 153 saved images along with other material found in its internet browser history, the outlet reported.
Florida law treats each individual image recovered as a separate and distinct crime, which is how prosecutors build cases with double-digit counts from a single device. Under Florida Statute § 827.071(5)(a), possession of child sexual abuse material is a third-degree felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine per count, according to Richard Hornsby Law. That statute is also part of a broader legislative shift: effective July 1, 2026, Florida House Bill 245 updated more than 50 statutory sections to formally replace the term “child pornography” with “child sexual abuse material,” while House Bill 445, known as Missy's Law, added child exploitation crimes to the state's list of dangerous offenses to restrict nonmonetary pretrial release, Hoodline previously reported in its coverage of a Tampa Bay CSAM case.
A Separate Stalking Case Surfaced in 2025
De Angelis was also adjudicated guilty of one count of stalking and one count of installation or use of tracking devices, according to court records cited by WWSB. That case began in 2025, when De Angelis placed an AirTag on a woman's vehicle to track her location and then showed up where she was, the outlet reported.
Unauthorized use of a tracking device like an AirTag on someone else's property is generally a third-degree felony under Florida Statute § 934.425, punishable by up to five years in prison, escalating to a second-degree felony carrying up to 15 years if it facilitates a dangerous crime, per Barnett Woolums. De Angelis's 210.675-month sentence in that case runs concurrently with his 20-year CSAM sentence, meaning the two terms overlap rather than stack.
Prosecution and Long-Term Consequences
Assistant State Attorney Tracy Detzel prosecuted both cases against De Angelis, according to court records. The 20th Judicial Circuit is headed by State Attorney Amira Fox and holds jurisdiction over felony cases across Charlotte, Lee, Collier, Hendry and Glades counties, according to WGCU News.
De Angelis is now a registered sex offender, per the state attorney's office. A conviction under Florida Statute § 827.071 requires lifetime sex-offender registration, according to Richard Foley Law.
The volume of cyber-tips behind cases like this one has grown sharply. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports containing 61.8 million files in 2025, with online enticement reports surging 158% year-over-year following expanded reporting mandates under the federal REPORT Act, according to MissingKids.org. Hoodline has also reported on similar cases stemming from that same cyber-tip pipeline, including a recent report on an 18-year-old jailed on CSAM charges elsewhere in Florida.
