Judge sentences MS Coast Navy veteran who downloaded sexually explicit images of minors

Mar. 6—A former physical therapy assistant in the Navy is headed to prison for 11 years and three months after he pleaded guilty to federal charges of receiving child pornography.

After his arrest, Andrew Gilbert Landry told federal investigators he liked to download images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Landry, 51, of Biloxi, said he preferred sexually explicit images and videos of minors who were 16 or older, but Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones debunked his claim.

Instead, Jones said, Landry had downloaded sexually explicit images and footage of children 12 and under over three months ending in October 2020 in Harrison County. Landry said he first started committing the crimes in 2019.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Taylor McNeel sentenced Landry to serve the rest of his life under post-release supervision once he's released from prison.

When he sentenced Landry Wednesday in federal court in Gulfport, the judge ordered him to pay $15,000 in restitution and an additional $8,000 in other fees and assessments.

In exchange for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors dismissed two other charges, one for receipt of child pornography and the other for possession of child pornography.

During his plea hearing, Gilbert told a judge he had suffered from depression most of his life. He said he downloaded the images to a laptop computer he kept under his bed at his Biloxi apartment. Once he got the photos and video, Landry uploaded them to an external hard drive and deleted them from his laptop.

Landry has been in custody since he pleaded guilty to the federal offense.

After his earlier plea, Judge McNeel denied Gilbert's appeal to remain on bond under home confinement pending his sentencing.

The judge made that decision after a federal probation officer pointed out that Gilbert had been previously arrested in Biloxi on a state charge.

According to the indictment in the state's case, Gilbert is awaiting trial on a charge of photographing, taping, or filming a woman while she was undressed and without her knowledge. The indictment says that the alleged crime occurred on Dec. 24, 2022, in a place where an expectation of privacy exists.

Assistant federal public defender Leilani Tynes represented Gilbert in the federal case.

This story was originally published March 6, 2024, 3:24 PM.

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