SOUTH JORDAN, Utah (ABC4) – A South Jordan man convicted of extorting teenage girls on social media – sometimes called ‘sextortion’ – has been sentenced to prison.
In the summer of 2019, Gabe Gilbert, then 19, was taken into custody on nine felony charges after investigators learned he asked a minor to send him naked photos in 2018. When the girl declined and told authorities, investigators discovered 50 potential victims of the same kind of extortion.
In 2019, when authorities went to take Gilbert into custody, they found he was serving a mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Gilbert was convicted this year of five counts of first-degree felony aggravated sexual extortion of a child and four counts of second-degree felony sexual exploitation of a minor. While prosecutors recommended he serve five years in prison, Gilbert was sentenced to terms of five years to life in state prison for each of the first-degree felonies.
For each of his second-degree felonies, he was sentenced to one to 15 years in prison. All counts run concurrently.
Gilbert was recommended to be eligible for parole in five years, according to court records, and that five years be the maximum amount of time he serves in prison.
