United States v. Jessie Glass, Jr.

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedDecember 2, 2025
Docket24-4193
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Jessie Glass, Jr. (United States v. Jessie Glass, Jr.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

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United States v. Jessie Glass, Jr., (4th Cir. 2025).

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 24-4193 Doc: 68 Filed: 12/02/2025 Pg: 1 of 18

PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 24-4193

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff – Appellee,

v.

JESSIE LEROY GLASS, JR.,

Defendant – Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Statesville. Kenneth D. Bell, District Judge. (5:21−cr−00060−KDB−SCR−1)

Argued: October 21, 2025 Decided: December 2, 2025

Before WILKINSON, GREGORY, and BERNER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Gregory and Judge Berner joined.

ARGUED: Melissa Susanne Baldwin, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellant. Amy E. Ray, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: John G. Baker, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Dena J. King, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee. USCA4 Appeal: 24-4193 Doc: 68 Filed: 12/02/2025 Pg: 2 of 18

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Detective Jason Lowrance obtained two warrants to search the home and electronics

of Jessie Glass after Glass’s second wife, April, reported seeing child sexual abuse material

(“CSAM”) on his cell phone. Glass claims the affidavits that Lowrance drafted to support

these warrants recklessly omitted known information that would have undermined April’s

credibility.

But Glass does not satisfy his heavy burden. Consistent with the Supreme Court’s

long-held preference for warrants, we must extend some grace to warrant affidavits. And

here, any omissions were immaterial to the state superior court judge’s probable cause

findings. We thus affirm the district court’s denial of Glass’s motion to suppress the

evidence seized from the warrants. We further reject his argument under the Double

Jeopardy Clause, as well as his challenge to a $5,000 assessment under 18 U.S.C. § 2259A.

I.

In late 2019, April reported to law enforcement that Glass had “a massive amount

of child porn saved on his phone.” J.A. 409. She provided the email address and suspected

password for Glass’s Google Photos account, wherein he reportedly kept much of the

CSAM. April added that she was married to Glass but had moved out of the house,

expressing fear of violent retaliation from him and his father if they learned about her

report.

A.

Shortly thereafter, Lowrance began looking into her claims. He telephoned April,

learning more about the CSAM she saw. In later correspondence, she reemphasized these

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allegations while airing other grievances, such as how she once “told [Glass] off” about an

alleged arrest, J.A. 396, and how she hoped for a divorce and alimony “due to [Glass]

causing [her] to lose [her] kids,” J.A. 413.

Lowrance arranged an in-person meeting between April and Heather Brown, a

police officer in Virginia. During it, April reported seeing at least fifty images of CSAM

on Glass’s phone, including some recent additions, and detailed the contents of several that

she remembered. To call them disturbing would be an understatement: examples include a

video of “someone [appearing to] touch[] the genital area” of a baby with “a bag over the

child’s head;” “[a] photo of . . . an adult male forcing his penis in [an] infant’s mouth;” and

“[a] video of an adult male,” who April worried was Glass, “making a prepubescent female

appearing to be 8 or 9 years old put his penis in her vagina.” J.A. 70. April explained that

Glass used social media to coax young girls into sending him pictures, and she specified

the appearance and probable locations of various electronics he owned.

Lowrance also searched April’s criminal history, discovering she had a pending

misdemeanor larceny charge for shoplifting at a Walmart. He subsequently learned about

another then-ongoing investigation into April for shoplifting. Lowrance likewise ran

Glass’s name through a crime database. In so doing, he found two prior investigations into

Glass for suspected child pornography.

One was in 2012. Glass’s first wife reported to the police that she had repeatedly

witnessed him view CSAM. Glass was eventually indicted on two counts of forcible

sodomy against a minor. However, one charge was dropped by the prosecution while the

other was dismissed upon acquittal in a bench trial.

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The second was in 2016. April’s mother turned over to the police photographs of

CSAM that April had reportedly found on Glass’s phone. Brown then interviewed April

and Glass, deeming the former’s accusations credible and the latter’s explanations not. She

held the case open for over a year, “hoping that something could have been done with it.”

J.A. 175–76. But she ultimately closed the file after being unable to find any authorities in

North Carolina (the location of Glass’s suspected crimes) willing to take the case.

In addition to these two investigations, Lowrance personally knew about a third. In

2017, April accused Glass of having “tablets . . . full of child porn.” J.A. 314. With Glass’s

consent, responding officers questioned him and searched his home for CSAM, finding

none there. They also retrieved a tablet that Glass volunteered. Lowrance, for his part,

helped draft the application for a warrant to search the tablet and, upon the warrant being

issued, executed the search. It too yielded no CSAM. Another detective thus closed the

case for being “[u]nfounded.” J.A. 93. In that officer’s words, “unfounded” was “one of

the dispositions” available on the reporting system used by state law enforcement whenever

they could not “find any particular evidence that the crime [they] were investigating at that

time occurred.” J.A. 206.

B.

Against this backdrop, Lowrance drafted an affidavit supporting his application for

a warrant to search Glass’s home for both electronic devices and equipment capable of

storing images. In it, he summarized his investigation into April’s accusations. Specifically,

he recounted her 2019 report about witnessing CSAM on Glass’s phone, including the

probable login information to access the account where Glass “ke[pt] the images in” its

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“trash bin.” J.A. 69. He next detailed the revelations from Brown’s in-person meeting with

April, reciting April’s vivid recollections of seven images of CSAM, explaining Glass’s

practice of messaging girls online for pictures, and relaying the descriptions and locations

of his electronics. Lowrance also noted Glass “had been investigated in Virginia for similar

reports in 2012 and 2016.” J.A. 69.

Based on this information, a North Carolina superior court judge issued the warrant.

Police executed it the next day, locating several electronics in Glass’s house. They also

found Glass at work, where he turned over a cell phone to be searched. Lowrance then

obtained another warrant, authorizing the device’s search. To do so, he attached an affidavit

containing the same information as the first one, while adding a description of the officers’

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