Ohio Man Sentenced for Production of Child Pornography

LONDON, Ky. - A Findlay, Ohio, man, Brenden David Martin, 25, was sentenced on Tuesday, by U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom, to 348 months in prison, for production of child pornography.

According to his plea agreement, beginning in 2019 and continuing through December 2021 - when the victim was a minor residing in the Eastern District of Kentucky - Martin engaged in conversations with the victim, using Internet-based messaging and social media platforms. He used these conversations to persuade the victim to engage in sexually explicit conduct, for the purpose of producing visual depictions of that conduct. Specifically, after initially receiving non-nude, but compromising photos of the victim, Martin threatened to disseminate those images via social media, as leverage to convince the victim to provide visual depictions of sexually explicit conduct. The victim ultimately provided him with hundreds of photographs and videos.

Under federal law, Martin must serve 85 percent of his prison sentence. Upon his release from prison, he will be under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office for life.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky; Michael E. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office; and Col. Phillip J. Burnett, Jr., Commissioner of the Kentucky State Police, jointly announced the sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI and Kentucky State Police. Assistant U.S. Attorney Pearce Nesbitt is prosecuting the case on behalf of the United States.

The U.S. Attorney's Office prosecuted this case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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