A Texarkana man was sentenced Friday to over 17 years in federal prison for the distribution of child pornography.
Troy DeWayne Daniels, 32, appeared with Texarkana attorney Jeff Harrelson for sentencing Friday morning in downtown Texarkana before U.S. District Judge Robert Schroeder III. Daniels pleaded guilty to distribution of child porn earlier this year.
Schroeder sentenced Daniels to 210 months in federal prison.
Investigators believe Daniels intended to sexually abuse his wife’s 6-year-old daughter at the time of his arrest in November 2019.
In October 2019, Daniels used social media apps to communicate with an undercover law enforcement officer. During the conversation, Daniels described his progress in grooming a female child for sexual exploitation, including stating that he was “hoping” to go “all the way” with her. During the conversation, Daniel admitted to the undercover officer that he had been looking at pictures and videos of younger girls “for a while.” Daniels then sent the undercover officer an image of child pornography claiming that the prepubescent female child depicted looked like the child he had been grooming.
Daniels did so in exchange for non-pornographic images of the undercover officer’s (fictional) daughter. Several days later, Daniels reached out to the undercover officer and asked if he could “play” with the officer’s (fictional) daughter on Snapchat. In November 2019, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Daniels’s home. Inside, officers found electronic devices containing more than 600 images of child pornography. The images found depicted prepubescent minors, sadistic or masochistic abuse or other depictions of violence, and depictions of the sexual exploitation of infants and toddlers.
Daniels’ sentence includes supervised release by federal probation officials for life upon his release from prison. He must also register as a sex offender.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Hornok represented the government.
