A 45-year-old Akron man was sentenced Tuesday to 14 to 17.5 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor or impaired person. Gregory DeMoss will also be required to register as a sex offender every 180 days for 25 years after his release from prison.
Summit County Prosecutor Elliot Kolkovich announced the sentence, which followed DeMoss's guilty plea in May, according to Cleveland.com. Prosecutors dismissed two additional counts as part of the plea deal, according to court records cited by the outlet. Investigators found that DeMoss possessed thousands of explicit images and hundreds of videos of child sexual abuse.
How the Investigation Unfolded
The case traces back to February 2024, when Akron police were told that DeMoss was actively sharing child sexual abuse material, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. That tip led to a multi-month forensic review that ultimately uncovered the trove of images and videos investigators say DeMoss possessed and distributed.
“Behind every image is a child who has been victimized,” Kolkovich said in announcing the sentence, per Cleveland.com's reporting. He added that “the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material is never an isolated incident,” and warned that continued circulation of such material “can prolong harm after the initial abuse.”
Why the Sentence Isn't a Fixed Number
DeMoss's 14-to-17.5-year range isn't a sentencing quirk — it's mandated by Ohio's Reagan Tokes Law, enacted in 2019, which requires indefinite sentencing for qualifying first- and second-degree felonies, according to Court News Ohio. The law sets the minimum term and caps the maximum at 150% of that minimum, giving the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction discretion to extend incarceration toward the maximum based on institutional behavior. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2907.322, pandering sexually oriented material involving a minor is a second-degree felony carrying two to eight years in prison and fines up to $15,000 per count, per the Ohio General Assembly's statute.
DeMoss has been designated a Tier II sex offender, a classification under Ohio Revised Code Chapter 2950 that requires in-person address and employment registration with the county sheriff every 180 days for 25 years after release. Unlike Tier III offenders, who face lifetime 90-day reporting and neighbor notification within 1,000 feet, Tier II status typically does not trigger those automatic community notifications, according to attorney Brian Morrissey's legal analysis. Ohio lawmakers have continued pushing to tighten restrictions on offenders like DeMoss: state senators Tim Schaffer and Andrew Brenner introduced Senate Bill 422 in April, which would bar Tier II and Tier III offenders from knowingly entering school, preschool, or childcare grounds, with narrow exceptions for things like student drop-off.
Part of a Broader Local Crackdown
DeMoss's case is one of several major child exploitation prosecutions Kolkovich's office has pursued this year. In March, Macedonia resident Sean Washington was sentenced to 10 to 11.5 years for child abuse and bestiality, and in July a jury convicted Cuyahoga Falls resident Dominic Galloway of child rape and pandering, according to the Summit County Prosecutor's Office. Hoodline previously reported on that Cuyahoga Falls conviction as well as an ex-teacher's guilty plea at Hoban High earlier this year.
The DeMoss case also lands amid a broader surge in reported digital child exploitation nationwide. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported its CyberTipline processed 20.5 million reports in 2024 containing nearly 63 million files tied to child sexual exploitation, with reports involving generative AI technology jumping 1,325% year-over-year, according to NCMEC. Expanded federal reporting mandates under the REPORT Act, enacted in 2024, drove a 70% surge in reported financial sextortion cases and sharp increases in CyberTipline filings into late 2025, per Our Rescue.
Northeast Ohio has seen a string of similar cases move through both state and federal courts. Copley resident Brandon E. Crawford received a 13-year federal sentence in 2025 for receiving and trading CSAM via social media apps, and Streetsboro resident Eric Michael Spreitzer received a 20-year federal sentence this month for possessing images of children under 12 — a case Hoodline covered in its report on the Streetsboro man's maximum sentence. Federal CSAM cases carry mandatory minimums ranging from five to 15 years per count, a stiffer floor than the state-level penalties DeMoss faced.
