Gymnastics coach who filmed minors ordered to serve at least 25 years in federal, state prisons

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Adam Richard Jacobs, a Utah gymnastics coach, has been ordered to serve at minimum 25 years in federal and state prisons.
He pleaded guilty in federal and state court for inappropriately filming minors at his gym.
Jacobs will serve 10 years for federal charges and at least 15 years, and potentially more, for state charges.

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah gymnastics coach sentenced to 10 years in prison for federal charges of inappropriately filming minors was sentenced to at least another 15 years in prison for related state charges.

Adam Richard Jacobs, 35, of Woods Cross, pleaded guilty in February in federal court to transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. As part of a plea deal, charges of production of child sexual abuse materials and possession of child sexual abuse materials were both dismissed.

Also in February, Jacobs pleaded guilty in Utah's 2nd District Court to 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony, and two counts of voyeurism, a class A misdemeanor. As part of a plea deal, an additional 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of voyeurism were dismissed.

Jacobs was sentenced in federal court to 10 years in prison plus a lifetime of probation on Aug. 14. At his state sentencing a week later, Jacobs was sentenced to terms of one to 15 years in prison for each of the 15 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, plus a year in prison for both voyeurism charges.

Defense attorneys requested that his state sentence be served simultaneously with the federal sentence, but the court denied the request, according to court documents. The sentences for each of the state charges were ordered to be served consecutively to each other and to the federal term. This means, at a minimum, Jacobs will serve 15 years in prison for the state charges after completing the 10-year federal term.

Jacobs is a partial owner of USA Gymnastics World in Woods Cross, where he admitted to placing a camera that looked like a USB charger in a public restroom between January 2022 and March 2023. In a plea statement, he admitted that he intended to capture images of children in various stages of undress.

"I wanted to capture these images and videos for my own sexual gratification," his plea statement says.

Police located approximately 120 videos of victims in the restroom, including 40 that show Jacobs setting up the cameras. Jacobs admitted to capturing videos of at least 15 minors and two adults who all had an expectation of privacy, court documents state.

Jacobs also admitted in federal court to placing a hidden camera in a minor's hotel room and bathroom to produce child sexual abuse material while traveling with the minor as a coach from Utah to Texas and Florida.

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