Christopher Carlo Caschera, a 26-year-old resident of Pittman Drive who’d interned in Palm Coast government and was employed as an environmental specialist for DeLand government, was sentenced to five years in prison followed by 10 years of sex-offender probation and a lifetime designation as a sex offender. The sentence results from a plea and conviction on 15 counts of possessing child sexual abuse material, also known as CSAM.
Caschera had been free on $150,000 bond, living with his family, since his arrest just before Christmas in 2022 following a Flagler County Sheriff’s investigation. A detective had been tipped off by a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children after Caschera’s Kit Messenger account with a screen name of goonguy778, associated with a particular email address, was flagged when 17 CSAM items were uploaded.
Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols took less than two minutes to impose sentence, the plea having been negotiated previously between Assistant State Attorney Melissa Clark and Davison, and approved by Nichols in January. The judge made no reference to a pair of letters Caschera’s mother had sent the court, pleading for additional mercy. “I am nobody but a grieving mother [who] felt what is the point of trying to get facts of a case heard if no one will listen,” she had written the day after a January hearing that had not gone as well as she had hoped as she became emotional.
Caschera claimed that a number of images for which her son was charged were “not even found” on his phone, and that at one point the defense attorney was preparing a motion to dismiss 14 of the 15 counts. “Prosecutor retaliates with if you show motion to dismiss I will bring other charges forward,” she alleged. (The claim was not verified.)
In a letter sent last week, Caschera’s mother asked for a “split sentence,” citing the good behavior of her son for the past two years. He kept a job and remained an “active member of society.” She also cited a psychosexual report that found her son to be “a low risk to society.”
Caschera’s report outlined in painful detail the numerous digital files of CSAM found in his possession, including videos of infants and pre-pubescent children being assaulted by adults. The sheriff’s detective subpoenaed Charter Communications, Verizon, Google ad other records to narrow down the search, along with search warrants. When confronted, Caschera conceded that he had such material on his phone, but said he had never touched a child.
The five-year sentence is to be served day for day, meaning that, other than the two days of credit he accrued at the county jail, Caschera is not eligible for early release, after serving 85 percent of his sentence, as are inmates serving time for most crimes. The probation terms will then be very strict.
