California man touting ‘My Little Pony’ birthday parties gets 8 years in child porn case

A Sacramento man who once tried to start a business entertaining children at birthday parties dressed in a “My Little Pony” outfit was sentenced Monday to eight years and one month in federal prison.

Daniel Wayne Benner, 35, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller following his guilty plea in August to a charge of distributing child pornography.

Mueller noted that Benner had accepted responsibility for his crimes, but said they were “very serious” and ordered him to register as a sex offender upon release.

“The birthday party business plan is very ill-conceived and a red flag,” Mueller said.

Benner, appearing via Zoom from the Sacramento County Main Jail, addressed the judge briefly before sentencing, telling her that he was “truly sorry for my actions” and apologizing to his family.

Prosecutors had asked for a 121-month sentence for Benner, citing repeated “disturbing” conduct and “the need to protect the public from further crimes,” court documents say.

Benner, who lived in Orangevale until his arrest in 2019 and who once worked as a janitor at a preschool, had a previous misdemeanor conviction in Sacramento Superior Court in 2006 for sexual conduct with a minor and had been sentenced to serve 180 days in jail and five years probation, court records say. The jail sentence was later suspended and he served no time, court records say.

FBI agents investigating a child pornography case in Arkansas discovered Benner’s activities and arrested him at his home, where his cellphone was seized and found to contain “multiple videos and images of child pornography,” including one involving abuse of an infant girl, court records say.

“Agents also found photographs of a person in a My Little Pony costume at what appeared to be a four-year-old girl’s birthday party,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina McCall wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “Benner’s publicly-accessible Facebook profile included a photo of a similar My Little Pony costume with a caption reading, ‘Rainbow dash is looking to come to your birthday party, and she brings candy and music, and you can feed her. Contact me for quotes. She will travel anywhere in Sacramento County.’

“During Benner’s interview, he said that he and his friends were planning to start a birthday party business, and he was going to wear the Rainbow Dash costume, but they had not secured any customers at the time of his arrest.”

Victims whose abuse was depicted in the videos, which were shared using Kik and other social media applications, wrote that they will never be free of the pain Benner caused.

“Now I have to suffer twice; the first time was being abused and the second time is the ongoing anxiety due to the images of my abuse forever accessible...,” one wrote, according to court records. “These images will live on the internet longer than I will live.”

Assistant Federal Defender Noa Oren argued for a five-year sentence, noting that Benner has been in custody at the Sacramento County Jail since his arrest in 2019 and that his conduct is the result of a “horrific childhood,” as well as addiction and “severe mental health issues.”

“Mr. Benner’s time in Sacramento County Jail has been very difficult and eye-opening,” Oren wrote in a sentencing memorandum. “He has been incarcerated during the COVID pandemic, which has been anxiety-provoking given his inability to be socially distanced, have adequate (access) to PPE, and inability to control his contact with unvaccinated people.

“Because Mr. Benner’s time in custody has been so fraught it has had a strong impact on him.”