Ohio man pleads guilty to possessing device-making equipment in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – An Ohio man pled guilty last week to illegally possessing credit card encoding devices in Mississippi.

According to court documents, Sean Matthew Langston, Jr., 33, was arrested in Rankin County on April 28, 2024, following a traffic stop. Investigators said Langston and his co-defendant, John Carleton Johnson, Jr., were found to be in possession of 322 gift cards, 17 reencoded instruments containing stolen bank card data, and two magstripe encoding devices.

Prosecutors said Langston and Johnson could be seen on CCTV footage at various retail stores throughout the Jackson-metro area purchasing gift cards with known cloned instruments.

Langston pled guilty to one count of illegal possession, production, or trafficking in device-making equipment with intent to defraud. He is scheduled to be sentenced on April 14, 2026, and faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in federal prison.

A federal grand jury returned a three-count indictment against Langston and Johnson on February 20, 2025. Johnson pled guilty on June 30, 2025, and was sentenced to serve two years in federal prison and ordered to pay a fine of $5,000 on November 3, 2025.