PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 22-4054

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

JACOB DAYLEN ROSS, a/ka/ Jake, a/ka/ Timneals207@gmail.com, a/k/a Jacobross292@gmail.com,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Asheville. Martin K. Reidinger, Chief District Judge. (1:20-cr-00064-MR-WCM-1)

Argued: March 22, 2023 Decided: June 30, 2023

Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, DIAZ, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Chief Judge Gregory wrote the opinion, in which Judge Diaz and Judge Thacker concurred.

ARGUED: Geoffrey Ryan Willis, DYSART WILLIS, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Anthony Joseph Enright, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Christian E. Dysart, DYSART WILLIS, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Dena J. King, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. USCA4 Appeal: 22-4054 Doc: 49 Filed: 06/30/2023 Pg: 2 of 20

GREGORY, Chief Judge:

Jacob Daylen Ross was convicted of producing and possessing child pornography

in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 2252A, respectively, and sentenced to

fifty-five years in prison. On appeal, Ross argues that the district court erred by identifying

him for a key government witness, Sosha Peters, after Peters was initially unable to make

the in-court identification herself. Ross also contends that his sentence was grossly

disproportionate to his offenses in violation of the Eighth Amendment. Finding no

reversible error, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

I.

A.

In June 2020, the McDowell County, North Carolina Sheriff’s Office (“MCSO”)

received a report from Sosha Peters, who claimed that Jacob Ross might be sexually

abusing children. Peters showed MCSO text messages she had exchanged with a phone

number she said belonged to Ross (the “2873 number”), which appeared to corroborate her

allegations. Based on that information, MCSO obtained a search warrant for the phone

records for the 2873 number. The responsive records showed that the number was

registered to Ross Skid Products. Ross’s parents owned that company, and Ross himself

worked there.

On June 24, officers conducted a traffic stop of Ross’s car based on an outstanding,

unrelated arrest warrant. Following the stop, Ross consented to a search of a cell phone in

his possession (the “8434 number”). MCSO discovered a photograph of a “very young”

2 USCA4 Appeal: 22-4054 Doc: 49 Filed: 06/30/2023 Pg: 3 of 20

girl’s genitalia on the phone. J.A. 116–17. MCSO then seized the phone and performed a

forensic extraction, which revealed several additional images of child pornography.

Pursuant to a search warrant, MCSO obtained the subscriber information for the 8434

number, which showed that this phone, like the 2873 number, was registered to Ross Skid

Products. MCSO also secured search warrants for three Google Mail accounts it had

discovered while searching the phone. 1 The records Google provided revealed that each

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