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AU.S. District judge in Florida has sentenced a convicted sex offender and a former employee of the Jacksonville Jaguars to 220 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge Brian J. Davis has sentenced 53-year-old Samuel Arthur Thompson to 220 years in federal prison for producing, receiving and possessing child sex abuse material, and for hacking the jumbotron in the Jacksonville Jaguars' stadium.
Thompson hacked the jumbotron screen after the Jaguars did not extend his employment contract upon learning he was a registered sex offender. The Middle District of Florida confirmed the sentencing in a release.
Thompson was convicted of the charges in November 2023, while he was also found guilty of violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA) and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon.
The 53-year-old was previously found guilty of assaulting a 14-year-old boy in Alabama in 1998, and he was required to register as a sex offender.
Prosecutors detailed how Thompson was hired by the Jaguars in 2013 to help design, install and run the big screen at the EverBank Stadium. The Jaguars thanked prosecutors for their work after the conviction was sealed in November.
How Thompson hacked the Jaguars' jumbotron
A statement read on Thompson's links with the Jaguars: "Thompson's contract with the Jaguars required him to report his conviction, but he did not. In January 2018, the Jaguars determined not to renew Thompson's contract after learning of his conviction and status as a registered sex offender. Before the expiration of Thompson's contract in March 2018.
"Thompson installed remote access software on a spare server in the Jaguars' server room. Thompson then remotely accessed computers that controlled the Jumbotron during three 2018 season NFL games, causing the video boards to repeatedly malfunction."