Instagram gun posts got Miami teen in legal trouble. This time, it’s pictures from Ultra

In the aftermath of the Parkland school massacre last year, federal agents stepped up scrutiny of social media and zeroed in on a Miami student named Sean Mesa.

Photos of him posing with guns filled his Instagram account. Worse, after his concerned father handed over his son’s cellphones, investigators found child porn on one.

Because he had no criminal record, prosecutors cut the Dr. Michael Krop Senior High student a lenient plea deal — a year of probation that also spared him from having to register as a sex offender. Now, the deal could be revoked, and Instagram and social media posts are again to blame.

Prosecutors are asking a Miami-Dade judge to rule that Mesa, now 19, repeatedly violated his probation and a house arrest order by partying in all sorts of places that were not his house. For instance, one of his girlfriend’s Instagram posts, showed the couple outside a South Beach nightclub with the mocking caption, “Bonnie & Clyde 2019.”

Mesa appeared in court on Wednesday, and was ordered to wear a GPS electronic ankle monitor while he awaits a probation-violation hearing. Miami-Dade Judge Milton Hirsch will hold the hearing on June 26; the State Attorney’s Office could ask for jail or prison time for Mesa.

“Sean isn’t trying to take advantage of the system,” said his defense lawyer, Jonathan Jordan. “Unfortunately, he is a teenager being a teenager — battling social media pressures and societal influences.”

Mesa’s first arrest in February 2018 became international news at a time when authorities were cracking down on students suspected of making online threats after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

Officers arrested Mesa just nine days after the worst school shooting in Florida history. U.S. Homeland Security Investigations’ Violent Gang Task Force flagged him because he was “recklessly displaying firearms and pointing them at the camera” via social media, according to an arrest warrant.

When a Miami-Dade schools detective, John Messenger, confronted Mesa, the teen bristled and told him he “likes guns and it was his right to post on social media whatever he wished,” according to court documents. Mesa’s father, however, agreed to give police the teen’s two phones.

An analysis of the phones revealed a video of what appeared to be a child under the age of 10 being sexually abused, according to the warrant. The clip had been sent to two others in a group chat.

Mesa, then 18 and a student at Dr. Michael Krop Senior High, was initially charged with possessing child pornography, and improper display of a firearm. After the Miami Herald first published the story, it went viral, appearing in a slew of national and international publications.

Because he was a first-time offender, prosecutors offered him a generous plea deal. In July, Mesa accepted the misdemeanor gun count and a lesser felony count of having an obscene image depicting a minor, which spared him having to register as a sex offender in Florida.

He was also granted a “withhold of adjudication” — which meant he would not have a conviction on his record.

As part of the plea deal, Mesa agreed to serve one year of probation and to get permission to leave Broward County, where he was living with his girlfriend’s family.

But in December, state probation officers alleged that Mesa went to Los Angeles on vacation without permission from his probation officer. The proof: photos from Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook showing him in California. When his probation officer called Mesa, he claimed he was in Key Largo for a chiropractor’s appointment — but detectives found a copy of his airline tickets.

Judge Hirsch ordered him to enter a house-arrest program, meaning he could not leave his home unless it was for an approved place such as work.

The second chance didn’t register. In recent weeks, investigators chronicled a slew of probation violations. Detective Messenger, according to court documents, saw the Instagram page of Mesa’s girlfriend, Yadessa Lacayo. She posted images of the two from March 30 at the Ultra electronic music festival on Virginia Key. Another photo, date stamped, was posted on Twitter.

He did not have permission to leave Broward County that night. Another posting revealed that the couple had a romantic dinner at Komodo, a high-end restaurant in Brickell, on April 19.

“He is not truthful about his whereabouts and is often proving untruthful information on his schedule,” probation officer Maria Alvarez wrote.

This story was originally published May 9, 2019 at 11:41 AM.