Man hides phone to make child porn but accidentally records himself, feds in Alaska say
An Alaska man hid a cellphone in the bathroom of a grocery store in an attempt to make child pornography, and he accidentally recorded himself while he was placing the device, federal prosecutors said.
Jesse Damon, 35, of Palmer was sentenced Dec. 10 to 25 years behind bars after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to produce child pornography, according to officials and court documents.
Once out, he’ll be on supervised release for life, prosecutors said.
Burke Wonnell, Damon’s attorney, declined to comment on the sentencing in a Dec. 12 email to McClatchy News.
Officials said Damon slipped the phone and a battery pack behind a vent in a grocery store’s family bathroom. A store staffer noticed the vent’s cover was loose and found the device, and employees opened the video app and saw Damon “as he inadvertently recorded himself in the process of hiding the phone,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska said in a news release.
Damon later was caught on store surveillance trying to retrieve the phone, officials said.
The phone had secret recordings of “a number of individuals” over four days in May 2022, officials said. Most of the people recorded were adults, officials said.
But, “of the individuals captured in Damon’s attempts to create child sexual exploitation material, two were children under the age of 12,” according to prosecutors.
“The investigation also revealed that Damon had also received and distributed ‘commercial’ images depicting child sexual abuse through the use of digital applications such as Kik, Dropbox and Mega Link,” prosecutors said.
Damon was on supervision in connection with a previous conviction of possessing child pornography when he was arrested, according to prosecutors.
In the news release, U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker described Damon as “a repeat offender who presented an escalating danger to our community.”
“I commend the vigilant supermarket employees whose swift actions played a crucial role in the successful investigation and prosecution led by the FBI and Palmer Police Department,” Tucker said in the news release.
Palmer is about a 45-mile drive northeast from Anchorage.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 9:29 AM.
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