WESTERVILLE, Ohio — A Westerville man convicted on crimes related to the sexual exploitation of a 5-year-old was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio.
Christopher Sammons, 28, was convicted last year on four counts related to creating child pornography for his sexual abuse of the victim.
According to court documents, an undercover FBI agent in Arkansas received messages from Sammons in March 2019 regarding sexual interest in children.
Throughout their conversations, Sammons encouraged the agent to “just make some homemade stuff” when discussing the availability of child pornography.
Sammons detailed sexually abusing the then 5-year-old victim and offered to share her. He then sent the agent child pornography files and suggested plans for the two to exchange videos of them sexually abusing minors.
The investigation was forwarded to FBI Columbus and an officer began communicating with Sammons who said he had been sexually abusing the victim for a year.
Sammons abused the victim while he was babysitting her and he was scheduled to babysit on the day he had arranged to exchange sexually explicit videos with the undercover agent.
Law enforcement officials executed a search at Sammon's before he was supposed to babysit.
Sammons was charged in April 2019 and taken into federal custody.
The jury convicted Sammons of one count of sexually exploiting a minor, two counts of making a notice for child pornography and one count of distributing child pornography.