Grand jury indicts Sacramento man accused of producing and possessing child porn
A federal grand jury has indicted a 25-year-old Sacramento man accused of producing and possessing child pornography in connection with an FBI investigation of alleged exchanges he had on Snapchat, according to filed court documents.
Jayson Fernandez Butay was indicted Thursday, and he is accused of producing child pornography with a minor on Sept. 28, 2019, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Sacramento. Federal prosecutors said Butay possessed prepubescent images of child pornography.
Butay allegedly persuaded or coerced a minor, who was then 9 years old and identified as Juvenile Victim 1 in court documents, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of creating imagery in a digital file that would be distributed, according to the two-count indictment filed Thursday in U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.
The US. Attorney’s Office initially filed a criminal complaint against Butay on Oct. 9, which led to his arrest. He was charged with child porn possession. The FBI had served a search warrant at Butay’s home and found names, images and videos indicative of child pornography on his laptop, according to an affidavit filed in support of the criminal complaint.
An FBI affidavit filed Oct. 7 in support of the search warrant indicates the FBI began investigating Butay in late July after it received information from the Finland Police Department about an alleged child pornography extortion scheme involving a 15-year-old girl in that country.
The teenage girl told police a Snapchat user known as “Ryan R” exchanged messages with her April 22, 2019. The user had just sent her a friend request. After she disclosed her name, age and country of residence, the other Snapchat user suggested she send nude photos of herself, according to the affidavit.
The girl instead sent photos of herself in underwear. Then Ryan R demanded she send nude photos of herself or he would send the photos of her in underwear to her family and friends, according to the affidavit. She complied with his demand and sent him photos of her upper body naked.
He then coerced the girl into sending him about 10 sexually explicit and demeaning videos of herself to him, before she blocked the user Ryan R on Snapchat, the FBI said in the affidavit. The following day, a Snapchat user known as “Caleb R” contacted her on the social media app and told her he was the same person she had sent nude images to the previous day.
When he threatened to share the nude photos and videos images she sent him if she didn’t send him more, she told her parents who told her to screenshot the last exchange of Snapchat messages, according to the affidavit. Then they reported it to police.
The FBI said it obtained records from Snapchat, Google, Sprint and Comcast that traced back to Butay, which led to his subsequent arrest earlier this month. The 15-year-old girl was not mentioned in the criminal complaint; only the alleged possession of child porn. The teenage girl also was not mentioned in the indictment, which only referenced a 9-year-old victim.
If convicted of producing child pornography, Butay could face 15 years to 30 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, according to the news release. Prosecutors said Butay, if convicted of possessing child porn, could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine for that charge.
