Essex Man Pleads Guilty To Child Pornography Charges

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                          Contact ELIZABETH MORSE

www.justice.gov/usao/md                                                   at (410) 209-4885

Greenbelt, Maryland – On April 25, 2018, Roy David Evans, Jr., age 33, of Essex, Maryland, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and sexual exploitation of a minor to produce child pornography.

The plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge Andre R. Watson of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Chief J. Thomas Manger of the Montgomery County Police Department.

According to the plea agreement, Evans posted advertisements on Craigslist for young girls to contact him via email or via Kik, a messaging application where users can text, livecam, and send digital images and videos to one another.  Evans enticed and coerced the 14 year-old victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to produce images of that conduct.  Evans then received videos of the victim engaged in sexually explicitly conduct via the Internet.

Evans faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison for production of child pornography; a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison for receipt of child pornography; and a maximum of 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography.  For each count, Evans faces up to lifetime supervised release following his imprisonment.

A sentencing hearing has been set for October 1, 2018 at the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.  For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.  For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "resources" tab on the left of the page.                                                                    

United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended HSI Baltimore, and the Montgomery County Police Department for their work in the investigation.  Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kelly O'Connell Hayes and Timothy Hagan, who are prosecuting the federal case.