Taylor County Man Guilty of Production and Possession of Child Pornography
Victims were Under Five Years of Age

LOUISVILLE—A Taylor County, Kentucky man has pleaded guilty in United States District Court, before Chief District Judge Joseph H. McKinley Jr., to a 15-count federal grand jury indictment charging him with violating federal child pornography laws, including the production and possession of child pornography, announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Tony Edwin Davis, 50, of Campbellsville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to charges that between December 18, 2009 and November 28, 2010, on 14 occasions, Davis knowingly employed, used, persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced two minor females under 5 years of age to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction. In addition, Davis pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly possessing child pornography on or about May 20, 2012.

According to an affidavit filed by an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in support of a criminal complaint against Davis, the FBI was contacted by the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office and Campbellsville, Kentucky Police Department on August 10, 2012, when a cell phone, formerly in the possession of the defendant, was found to have images of child pornography.

Davis faces a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years in prison. The maximum potential penalties are 710 years in prison, a fine of $3,750,000, and a period of supervised release of at least five years and could be for the remainder of his life. Sentencing is scheduled before Chief Judge McKinley on May 9, 2013, at 10:30 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Davis is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney A. Spencer McKiness and is being investigated by the FBI, the Taylor County Sheriff’s Department, and the Campbellsville Police Department.

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.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”