Whitley County Man Pleads Guilty to Producing Child Pornography

LONDON, Ky. - A Williamsburg, Ky., man, Amos Sparkman, 25, pleaded guilty on Tuesday, before U.S. District Judge Claria Horn Boom, to the production of child pornography.       

According to his guilty plea agreement, in October 2020, Sparkman started an online relationship with a minor female, using the social media platform Snapchat. Sparkman confessed to a sexual relationship with the minor and possessed a video of the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct with Sparkman.  Sparkman admitted that he used the minor victim to produce visual depictions of the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and that the depictions were then transferred using Snapchat.

Sparkman was indicted in January 2020.

Carlton S. Shier, IV, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and James Robert Brown, Jr., Special Agent in Charge, FBI, Louisville Field Office, jointly announced the guilty plea.

The investigation was conducted by the FBI.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jenna E. Reed.

Sparkman is scheduled to be sentenced on July 13, 2021.  He faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison, in addition to a maximum $250,000 fine.  However, any sentence will be imposed by the Court, after its consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal sentencing statutes.

This case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  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.