Jacksonville Woman Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy To Create And Distribute Animal Crush Videos

A Jacksonville woman faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to create and distribute animal crush videos.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida,  Nicole Danielle Devilbiss (35, Jacksonville) pled guilty to the crime on Thursday. Animal crushing is defined under federal criminal law as “actual conduct in which one or more living non-human mammals, birds, reptiles, or amphibians, is purposely crushed, burned, drowned, suffocated, impaled, or otherwise subjected to serious bodily injury.”

According to the plea agreement, in September 2023, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Jacksonville received information regarding an individual residing in Jacksonville, who was identified as an administrator of a social media application group chat that was dedicated to the abuse, torture, and death of various-aged monkeys. The HSI investigation revealed that numerous people involved in the group exchanged hundreds of messages about the abuse and torture of monkeys, as well as videos depicting the abuse and torture of monkeys. The purpose of the group was to fund, view, distribute, and promote animal crush videos that depicted the torture, murder, and sadistic mutilation of animals, specifically baby and adult monkeys. The co-conspirators agreed to create animal crush videos using videographers and animals in other countries, to include Indonesia, which would then be sent to the United States. The name of the group changed multiple times to innocuous names that were inconsistent with the goals and interests of the group, which appeared to be in an effort to avoid detection by law enforcement. 

This investigation led to the identification of Devilbiss as a member of that group. Law enforcement was able to obtain some of those messages and videos that were exchanged involving her.