A former Durango middle school music teacher was sentenced Tuesday, August 18, to 40 years in federal prison and lifetime supervision after admitting he spent nearly two years posing as a teenage girl online to manipulate and abuse dozens of adolescent boys, several of them his own students. Benjamin Smith, 30, taught music and band at Escalante Middle School from 2021 through 2024 while running the scheme, according to prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors said Smith created a Snapchat persona using the username MTNCHICK69, posing as a 16-year-old girl named Kristin to contact boys in the Durango area, according to FOX31 Denver. Prosecutors said he asked boys to send specific images of their bodies and, in at least one case, sent a victim nude photos of a young girl as part of the manipulation. Federal court filings previously indicated the illicit activity targeting Durango-area teens began in October 2022 and continued until his arrest in July 2024, spanning nearly two full years while Smith was actively teaching at the middle school.
From a Parking Lot Meet-Up to a Federal Case
The scheme first unraveled after a 16-year-old boy reported arranging an online meet-up with MTNCHICK69 in a parking lot, only to find Smith waiting there instead, according to 9News. Durango Police Department officers arrested Smith on July 25, 2024, after that report, and detectives used the department's automated Flock Safety license plate reader cameras to track and identify his vehicle during the initial local investigation, according to a Durango Police Department post shared via Facebook. State charges originally filed in La Plata County were dropped once federal prosecutors assumed jurisdiction over the case.
What began as a local arrest quickly grew into a sprawling federal case. A federal criminal complaint filed October 4, 2024, initially charged Smith with coercion, enticement, and possession of child sexual abuse material, and a federal grand jury returned a 48-count indictment against him just two weeks later, on October 18, 2024, 9News reported. The investigation was led jointly by Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI's Durango office, and the Durango Police Department, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey K. Graves prosecuting the case, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Investigators said a search warrant executed at Smith's residence in July 2024 turned up sexually explicit photographs belonging to more than two dozen school-age minors living in the Durango area.
Charges Detail Scale of the Abuse
According to FOX31 Denver, Smith was charged with coercion and enticement of minors against 11 minors, attempted coercion and enticement against eight more, and production of child pornography involving 36 victims. Prosecutors said Smith reportedly engaged in sexual encounters with 11 boys and took substantial steps toward sexual acts with eight others, using what the U.S. Attorney's Office described as a disguise, props, and a structured protocol to lure boys into in-person encounters. Victims included children as young as 13, and one victim was 12 years old, per the release cited by FOX31 Denver.
Smith pleaded guilty in federal court in Durango on January 28, 2026, before U.S. Magistrate Judge James M. Candelaria, under a plea agreement that set a sentencing range of 19 to 40 years and eliminated the possibility of a life sentence, The Durango Herald reported. He pleaded guilty to three felony counts covering 37 total victims, and FOX31 Denver reported that Smith ultimately admitted to victimizing 37 adolescent boys, according to the release, several of whom he had previously taught at Escalante Middle School.
Sentencing and Prosecutors' Response
Smith was formally sentenced Tuesday, August 18, at the federal courthouse in Denver to 40 years in federal prison followed by lifetime supervision, according to the Rocky Mountain Voice. U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado Peter McNeilly announced the sentencing in a press release, saying his office and its law enforcement partners will aggressively target people who commit crimes against children in Colorado. “Those who prey on children have no place in a civil society,” McNeilly said, adding that Smith will be unable to hurt young people while serving his sentence and supervision.
Durango School District 9-R previously confirmed Smith's employment dates at Escalante Middle School and called the allegations against him “profoundly disturbing” in a statement issued after his 2024 arrest, 9News reported. The case prompted local parents and community groups to raise questions about the district's hiring and safety protocols. Smith's prosecution was carried out under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 that connects federal prosecutors with regional Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, according to the Justice Department.
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