PALMETTO (FL)
Bradenton Herald [Bradenton FL]
April 22, 2026
By Michael Moore Jr.
A Manatee County jury convicted a former Palmetto pastor Tuesday of sexually abusing a 2-year-old and recording the abuse on his cellphone.
Jonathan Edward Elwing, 45, will spend the rest of his life in prison after jurors found him guilty of 12 charges, including capital sexual battery, lewd or lascivious molestation and crimes tied to the production and possession of child sexual abuse material.
Circuit Judge D. Ryan Felix sentenced Elwing immediately after the verdict, which came following about an hour of jury deliberations at the Manatee County courthouse in downtown Bradenton.
“This was a short trial. It’s a trial that’s short because the evidence was overwhelming. It was strong,” Felix said, sentencing Elwing to life in prison on all 12 counts. “I don’t have a lot to say preceding my sentence other than these acts were evil…the appropriate sentences will be life in prison. You don’t belong anywhere in a civilized society.”
Former Palmetto pastor gets life in prison
Elwing served as the senior pastor at Palm View Baptist Church before his arrest. Elwing resigned his position as pastor of the church shortly before his arrest.
The conviction and sentencing came following a one-day trial at the Manatee County Judicial Center.
Much of the trial centered on digital evidence, with prosecutors showing jurors censored photographs and other key findings investigators say they gathered from a password-protected app on Elwing’s phone.
The lead prosecutor in the case, Assistant State Attorney Ashley Dusnik, argued that the photo evidence alone “certainly proved” the case “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The defense pushed back during closing arguments, saying that “after all the testimony, all the exhibits, all the arguments” jurors heard, “the law does not permit a conviction on possibility or suspicion,” Elwing’s attorney, Kati Trese, said.
Crime tip led to pastor’s arrest
The investigation began in June 2024 after the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said it received a tip about the purchase of child sexual abuse material using cryptocurrency.
When investigators arrived with a search warrant, they said they seized a Google Pixel 7 Pro cellphone from Elwing’s pocket during the search. Jurors heard testimony that neither Elwing’s wife, nor the children used the device, which investigators say was password-protected.
Krystal Larkin, Elwing’s ex-wife, paused several times to compose herself Tuesday before testifying that Elwing was the only person who used the phone and that no one else, including her, knew the password.
Investigators said after unlocking the device, they found five images inside the phone’s “KeepSafe” app, which hides and protects media behind a PIN password. Detectives said the photos, which were taken within a four-minute span on April 26, 2024, showed him sexually abusing a 2-year-old child.
A digital forensic specialist testified that the phone’s internal camera captured the images, which prosecutors said contradicted any claim that they came from the internet. According to an arrest report, Elwing told detectives that he sometimes purchases adult pornography and claimed that he deletes any child sexual abuse material that “may get mixed in.”
Prosecutors argued the images showed Elwing and the child, pointing to one photo that captured his face, including his “distinctive black metal-frame glasses” and “gray, wiry beard,” and saying the glasses matched those he wore in court.
Elwing’s defense attorney questioned whether metadata showing the files had been modified meant they could have been altered, however, detective Steven Luke with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office testified that the modification date reflected the files being saved from the camera roll into the KeepSafe app.
Luke told jurors that the files’ hash values, which function like a “digital fingerprint,” showed that the photos were unaltered.