An unsettling case has come to a close as Alsaphone Hunt, a 44-year-old man from St. Louis County, confessed this past Thursday to his reprehensible online conduct involving the solicitation of nude images from children, official reports confirm.
Hunt's admission includes a guilty plea to one count of coercion and enticement of a minor and one count of distribution of child pornography, the beginning of this saga dates back to February 2021 when he initiated contact with an 8-year-old girl in Maryland using Facebook Messenger, shortly after the child's mother intervened, taking over the device and finding herself subjected to Hunt's inappropriate advances as he requested explicit photos and sent one of his own, the mother ceasing communication and alerting the police who identified Hunt and escalated the matter to the St. Louis County Police Department.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the police investigation ramped up when, on March 1, 2021, a detective from the St. Louis department, posing as a 10-year-old girl, accepted a friend request from Hunt on Facebook, leading to a chilling sequence in which Hunt transmitted child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and explicit photos to the undercover officer through Facebook Messenger.
The culmination of these events was Hunt's arrest at the fast-food establishment he worked at on March 5, 2021, where he openly confessed to his actions and authorized police to search the phone he had utilized for these heinous communications, subsequently a search of the phone uncovered an alarming collection of 65 video files and 165 image files categorized as CSAM, coupled with 55 image files of child erotica, moreover investigators tied Hunt to coercing a 12-year-old victim into providing CSAM that she generated herself.
Hunt's sentencing is slated for August 21, with a joint recommendation from defense attorneys and the U.S. Attorney's Office pegging his potential prison term at 15 years. This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Hayes, was a cooperative effort involving the St. Louis County Police Department, the Montgomery County (Maryland) Department of Police, the FBI, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, and is a part of Project Safe Childhood, the Department of Justice’s initiative against the surge of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
