Army soldier in Arizona sentenced to 5 years for child pornography, death threats

PHOENIX – A U.S. Army soldier stationed in Arizona was sentenced to five years in prison last week for possessing child pornography and making death threats to federal employees who were monitoring him after his arrest, authorities said.

Jahara William Byfield, 23, of Sunrise, Florida, will be placed on lifetime supervised release after serving his prison sentence and be required to register as a sex offender, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona said in a press release Monday.

Byfield, who was stationed at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona, was initially arrested on Aug. 28, 2020, after investigators found images and videos of children engaging in sexually explicit contact on his cellphones.

He was given pretrial release on the condition that his computer activity would be monitored, and he pleaded guilty to one count of possession of child pornography on Dec. 3, 2020.

While he was awaiting sentencing, “Byfield threatened to kill everyone involved with the computer monitoring program,” according to the release.

His release was revoked and he was charged on June 23, 2021, over the threats. Byfield pleaded guilty to threatening to assault or murder a federal employee on Dec. 20, 2021.

Homeland Security Investigations, the Sierra Vista Police Department, Army Criminal Investigation Division and U.S. Marshals Service investigated the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative.

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