A 39-year-old man, Joshua David Stapleton, a social media influencer, will spend the next five years behind bars after pleading guilty to child pornography charges. His wife, Brittani Morris Stapleton, in a social media post, appears to defend Joshua by saying that they are “still happy.”
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According to Fox 5, Joshua received a 20-year sentence on June 24. He will serve five of those 20 years behind bars, with the remaining 15 on probation.
An investigation determined that between 2018 and 2020, Joshua downloaded child pornography images. He was initially charged with 15 counts of possession of child pornography. However, he was eventually indicted on 40 counts of sexual exploitation of children.
As part of a non-negotiated plea agreement, Joshua David Stapleton pleaded guilty to 20 of the 40 counts. The remaining 20 counts were dropped by the prosecution.
His arrest came as a shock to his neighbors. Bryan Canty, who lived across the street from the Stapletons, described him as a “mild-mannered guy.”
“Nothing that would even give you the slightest inclination that there was some type of criminal activity going on,” Canty told Fox 5, adding that Stapleton’s 2020 arrest “threw me for a loop.”
Joshua’s Wife Responds
On Friday, July 4, Brittani posted an 8-minute video to TikTok. She and Joshua managed the Gulfcoast Stapletons account, which amassed more than 88,000 followers with their Gulf Coast lifestyle content.
At the very beginning of her video, Brittani threatened legal action against those who spread “misinformation” that could ruin “someone’s reputation.”
Then, she confirmed to her followers that she knew about Joshua’s charges. She found out about them when they were friends, years before they married in 2023.
“Josh was absolutely upfront with me about everything in the charges, there were no secrets,” Brittani said.
Brittani would then recall how she reached out to her then-friend Joshua after she found out about the child exploitation charges.
“I have a really good judge of character and I knew something was up,” she said. “I knew that was not Josh.”
The influencer would also address the accusations that their content is faked to portray an apparent “perfect” lifestyle.
“There’s nothing fake about it. It was our lives, we are still happy, he and I have no issues,” Brittani added.
Toward the end of the 8-minute video, Brittani is shown hugging Carlos, her dog.
“We might be back soon, might not,” Brittani concludes.
Currently, only mutual friends can comment on the Gulfcoast Stapletons’ TikTok account.