Cecil County Woman Sentenced to 80 Years in Federal Prison for Charges Related to Her Sexual Abuse of an Infant

Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Summer Nichole McCroskey, age 25, of Elkton, Maryland, today to 80 years in federal prison, followed by 80 years of supervised release, for her participation in a conspiracy to sexually abuse a child from the age of approximately four months to two years old, for producing and distributing videos and images documenting the sexual abuse of a child and for possession of child pornography.  McCroskey has been detained since her arrest in February 2022.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Cecil County State’s Attorney James Dellmyer; and Cecil County Sheriff Scott Adams.

McCroskey previously pleaded guilty to each of the 16 counts with which she is charged in the indictment, admitting that she and her co-conspirator, Lawrence Aquilla Colby, IV, sexually abused a child, starting at the time the victim was approximately four months of age through at least October 2021, when the victim was two years old.  Both McCroskey and Colby participated in the abuse.  McCroskey produced videos and images documenting their sexual abuse of the child, which she distributed to Colby and others, using an encrypted messaging application.

As detailed in court documents, if not for the collaboration of international law enforcement agencies and the work of the FBI in Baltimore, McCroskey and Colby’s abuse and exploitation of the victim would be ongoing.  Videos documenting the victim’s abuse were seen by international law enforcement partners on internet platforms as early as May 2020.  In December 2021, information connecting the videos to the United States was developed and on February 11, 2022, the FBI connected the videos to one of McCroskey’s social media accounts, searched her residence and arrested McCroskey and Colby.

Lawrence Aquilla Colby, IV, a/k/a “Buddy,” age 34, of Elkton, Maryland, also pleaded guilty.  Colby faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for conspiracy to sexually exploit a child and for each of five counts of sexual exploitation of a child; a mandatory minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each of three counts of receipt of child pornography; and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for possession of child pornography.  U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett has scheduled sentencing for Colby on August 15, 2023, at 11:00 a.m.

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 Attorney’s 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 Erek L. Barron commended the FBI, the Cecil County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Cecil County Sheriff’s Office for their work in the investigation and thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Paul E. Budlow and Colleen E. McGuinn who are prosecuting the case.

For more information on the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, its priorities, and resources available to help the community, please visit www.justice.gov/usao-md/project-safe-childhood and https://www.justice.gov/usao-md/community-outreach.

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