This morning, Baron Keith Barber, 55, of North Fort Myers, now a designated Sexual Predator, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for two counts of Unlawful Sexual Activity, Lewd or Lascivious Battery, Delivery of a Controlled Substance to a Minor, Promoting a Sexual Performance by a Child, two counts of Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material and two counts of Failure to Register as a Sex Offender.
Assistant State Attorney Francine Donnorummo, Special Victims Unit Chief, and Assistant State Attorney Kathryn Lavelle prosecuted the case.
In late December 2023, the victim’s parents discovered something was wrong when they answered their daughter’s phone and an adult male was calling on video, via Facetime, asking for the child. The parents asked the man who he was and why he was calling their daughter. He quickly moved his face away from the camera and claimed he was a friend. The man was then blocked rom calling the phone.
A short time later, the parents went through the phone and discovered messages that led them to believe their daughter was in a sexual relationship with the man. The parents determined who the man was by locating his Instagram account and seeing that it was the same man who called their child’s phone. They then contacted law enforcement.
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation. The child victim told authorities that she met the defendant at a store in Fort Myers. He began to talk to her and gave her money. They exchanged phone numbers, and the defendant began to contact the child victim via Instagram. The defendant then began to meet the victim for sex. He would give the victim drugs, usually “Molly,” and have sex with the victim when she was under the influence of the drugs.
The defendant had sex with the child victim in a van and at the child victim’s house. He would go to the home the family lived in, after he confirmed her parents were not there. He would park at the end of the street and walk to the house. He would engage in sex with the child victim in her parent’s bedroom and outside of the house. Each visit, he would provide drugs to the child victim.
The victim was able to identify the defendant from a line-up and he was arrested.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office also assisted in this investigation as the child victim was interviewed in that county.
Samantha Syoen – State Attorney’s Office Communications Director