MS Coast attorney denounces ‘vigilante’ justice at sentencing in child exploitation case
A Gulfport man thought he was just a few keystrokes away from meeting a 9-year-old girl for sex when his actions came to light in video footage from the Houston-based vigilante group Predator Poachers.
A subsequent police investigation resulted in the January 2022 arrest of Justin Michael Cripps, 33, on child exploitation charges.
On Monday, Judge Christopher Schmidt sentenced an apologetic Cripps to 30 years in prison for child exploitation, with 20 years suspended and 10 years to serve in prison. The judge fined him $10,000 with additional orders that he register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Before sentencing, Cripps told the judge he was “not living my best life” at the time he committed the crimes because of his addictions that he’s sought treatment for since his arrest. He has remained jailed in Harrison County since his arrest.
“I just, uh, more than anything, want to apologize for the shame I brought on my family to even put myself in a position like this,” he said. “I don’t take these three years (in jail so far) as a loss because I found sobriety and I actually have found God, and I’m grateful for life and second chances.”
He said his actions also prevented him from spending time with his children.
Defense Attorney Jim Davis questioned whether his client should face any time in prison because of the initial actions of a vigilante group instead of the work of trained police professionals like those with the Mississippi Internet Crimes Against Children task force to make the arrest.
“What we are doing by punishing Mr. Cripps is promoting vigilante justice,” Davis argued. “They are not law enforcement. They should be charged as accessories or conspirators who commit this crime. They are baiting him to commit this crime. They are just as guilty as he (Cripps) is, and they profit off of it, which is absurd.
“They could care less about justice,” Davis said. “They are in it for themselves, and that’s it. I’m just wondering if this is the type of justice we want in Harrison County, Mississippi.”
Since its formation in 2019, Alex Rosen, the founder of Predator Poachers, has credited the vigilante group with at least 46 arrests in the United States of alleged child sex predators. The group films their confrontations with suspected offenders to share over the Internet just as they did in this case.
“I’m not persuaded that if this investigation had been (Initially) conducted by law enforcement ... that this defendant’s conduct would have been any different during the course of those online communications with what Mr. Cripps’ believed to be a 9-year-old child,” the judge said.
A Harrison County prosecutor pointed out to the judge that Gulfport police thoroughly investigated the case once it came to their attention. That investigation included interviewing witnesses and people close to Cripps. The prosecutor said those who knew Cripps confirmed his interest in young girls and that police investigators had also found other child sex material on the defendant’s phone that confirmed his sexual desire for children.
The group filmed and posted their confrontation with Cripps at his family’s Gulfport home on YouTube, but Davis said that the social media site shut down that account. . The group has other social media sites on X, Facebook, Grndr, Rumble and more.
“I’m not especially fond of the way the case came to the attention of law enforcement,” Schmidt said. “However, I have to consider the defendant’s conduct ...”
The judge noted that after he reviewed the exhibits in the case file for “as long as I could stomach,” and said the actions of the defendant are made worse just by knowing that he has young children himself and that he was “only a few steps from getting to what he wanted” and that was a 9-year-old girl.
This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 8:52 AM.
