JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A 36-year-old Jacksonville man was sentenced Monday to three years in federal prison for failing to register as sex offender after traveling from Florida to North Carolina.
Jeffrey Highsmith was also sentenced to serve a 15-year term of supervised release, during which he is prohibited from unsupervised contact with minors.
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Highsmith has been in custody since his arrest in January 2010 in North Carolina.
Highsmith was convicted of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child in February 2006 in Flagler County. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of sex offender probation following his incarceration.
In May 2007, Highsmith was released from custody, and in July 2007, he registered as a convicted sex offender with the state of Florida. Florida sex offender registration requirements mandated that Highsmith re-register twice yearly.
In connection with his sex offender probationary period, he was required to wear an electronic monitoring device. In December 2009, Highsmith removed the electronic monitoring device and discarded it in downtown Jacksonville, thus violating the conditions of his release, prosecutors said. They said he fled to North Carolina without first notifying local authorities in Jacksonville, in violation of his sex offender registration requirements.
Highsmith was arrested in January 2010 in North Carolina by officers with the Macon County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshals Service.