American Baptist pastor of Florida to face tons of criminal charges of sexual child abuse

Jonathan Elwing of  First Baptist Church for was arrested on capital felony charges including two counts of sexual battery, six counts of production of child sexual abuse material, and six counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.

By Edward Era Barbacena 

A former Florida Keys pastor is facing charges of child sexual abuse and child pornography after police discovered depraved images of his crimes, according to prosecutors.

Jonathan Elwing — who was pastor at Islamorada's First Baptist Church for seven years before he joined Palm View First Baptist Church in Manatee County — was arrested on June 20 on more than a dozen capital felony charges including two counts of sexual battery, six counts of production of child sexual abuse material, and six counts of possession of child sexual abuse material.

On July 10, he was indicted by a grand jury on the charge of sexually battery of a child.

"This is a monster," Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said of Elwing said during a press conference.

The investigation began when detectives received a tip that Elwing had allegedly used cryptocurrency money to buy child porn on the dark web. Deputies obtained a search warrant, which led to the discovery of images on the 43-year-old's cell phone of him sexually battering a toddler, according to court documents.

While Elwing told police that he sometimes bought adult pornography, and claimed to have deleted any child sexual abuse material that "may get mixed in," investigators allege that a forensic search of his phone revealed several child porn images.

Prosecutors say police found that he had sexually abused a 2-year-old infant and recorded it. He had been using private photo vault app to hide more than a dozen photos of him sexually abusing the child, prosecutors allege.

In Florida, a person found guilty of sexually assaulting a child faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to Elwing's LinkedIn, he was a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Islamorada from December 2012 to November 2019 before becoming a pastor at Palm View First Baptist Church.

He reportedly resigned from his recent role prior to his June arrest.

"Right now, the concern is: are there other potential victims given his close contact with children as a leader of the church," Mark Morie, a Manatee County Sheriff's Office lieutenant, said.