FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A San Diego man was booked into the Broward Main Jail on Thursday, one day before he’s scheduled to face a Fort Lauderdale federal judge in a child exploitation case being prosecuted in South Florida.
Eric Jacob Layton, 51, is scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge David S. Leibowitz at 10 a.m. Friday for a status conference, according to federal court records. He’s facing a charge of attempted production of child pornography.
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According to the FBI, the investigation into Layton began in April 2023 after police received a tip that a 15-year-old Plantation boy “was being solicited online via social media and voice calls to produce child sexual abuse material.”
A criminal complaint states that the boy’s mother had created an Instagram account to promote her son’s boxing. Police said Layton, claiming to be a writer for a boxing publication, reached out via direct message seeking an interview with the boy and his phone number.
The complaint states that the boy’s parents believed it was a legitimate request and allowed Layton to interview their son; they overheard questions that weren’t sexual in nature.
Authorities said Layton continued to send direct messages on Instagram. A few days later, they said “Dr.Iniesta Alexis,” later identified as Layton, called from a private number, this time claiming to be a physician with USA Boxing.
Layton, the complaint states, wanted to know how the boy “was eligible to participate in boxing events without completing a physical examination conducted by a USA Boxing-certified physician” and “reiterated what he had said on Instagram about new rules being instituted where the fighters will be matched up based on physical development and not by age and/or weight.”
The complaint states Layton said that an “examination/interview” could be conducted over the phone and the boy’s father allowed it because Layton knew the boy’s USA Boxing identification number.
The boy told his father that Layton asked him if he masturbated, produced testosterone and whether he had pubic hair. Layton also asked the boy about the size of his penis, the complaint states.
Layton had also asked the boy’s father whether he produced testosterone, something the boy’s father later said was a “red flag,” authorities said.
Layton would later contact the boy’s father and ask him to produce pictures of the boy’s “pelvic area, to include his genitals,” and send them to him, the complaint states, claiming they were required to determine the boy’s “physical development.”
Authorities said despite persistent requests, the boy’s father did not comply.
The complaint states that Layton, pretending to be the boxing writer, continued sending Instagram direct messages and asked whether a doctor had reached out to the boy, encouraging the boy’s mother to comply with the doctor’s demands. Authorities said this led the boy’s mother to believe that the physician and writer were one in the same.
After continued calls and requests, the boy’s father contacted USA Boxing, authorities said. The complaint states that an official with the organization told him that the doctor was not legitimate and he was the fourth parent to contact them with a similar story.
Authorities later became involved and were able to trace the accounts and phone number to Layton, the complaint states.
On July 6, authorities executed a search warrant at Layton’s San Diego home and found that he had contacted five males aged 13 to 20 claiming to be a female modeling recruiter, with the purpose of producing child sexual abuse material, the complaint states.
San Diego ABC affiliate KGTV received viewer video of the raid. Layton was initially arrested on California state child pornography charges, the station reports.
The complaint states that Layton made sexual comments to the victims and encouraged them to send sexual content.
Layton, under his former legal name of Eric Leighton Abrams, was sentenced to two years in prison for false imprisonment and annoying or molesting a child after a 1999 case where he pretended to be a Nike representative and tricked a 13-year-old boy into thinking he won a prize, luring the boy to his house, KGTV reports.
The station reported that the name change from Eric Leighton Abrams to Eric Jacob Layton came in 2021.
“The FBI and ICAC have identified several more victims who were primarily targeted through their involvement in youth sports,” the FBI said in a summer 2023 news release. “Layton has even facilitated multiple massages of a minor, portraying himself as a sports massage therapist named Travis Parkin who specialized in youth athletes.”
The FBI said that Layton is the father of a young son and agents believed that more victims were out there.
The FBI has asked anyone with information on or contact with Layton to email laytoninvestigation@fbi.gov.