Former Jaguars Employee Sentenced To 220 Years In Prison On Disturbing Charges

A former Jacksonville Jaguars employee has been sentenced to more than 200 years in prison for child sex crimes.

Samuel Arthur Thompson, 53, was sentenced to 220 years in federal prison by a judge in Jacksonville on Monday. Thompson had previously been convicted in November of producing, receiving and possessing sexual images of children, violating the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act and hacking the Jaguars' Jumbotron screen after the team did not retain him because of his status as a sexual offender.

Thompson had originally been convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage boy in Alabama in 1998. He was sentenced to three-to-10 years in prison but wound up serving less than two years. 

Thompson later worked for the Jaguars from 2013-18 as part of the team installing the jumbotron at EverBank Stadium and also operated the video screen during game days. 

However, his contract with the team required him to disclose his status as a sex offender, and the Jaguars did not renew it after he failed to do so. Thompson later hacked into the team's video board during games and caused it to malfunction.

Following an FBI investigation, Thompson fled to the Philippines. He was deported to the United States in Jan. 2020 and arrested pending trial. 

“My comment back to the FBI agent was that this is the first time I have been able to rest easy, that he will never live long enough to see another victim,” said Brandon Champion, who was the boy abused by Thompson when he was a teenager. “He will never prey on another kid.”