A 40-year-old Largo, Maryland man who traveled into Washington, D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood expecting to meet a 9-year-old child was instead met by waiting federal agents, and his phone held six videos and two still images of child sexual abuse material. Marshall Day was sentenced Thursday to 108 months in federal prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to one count of transportation of child pornography.
U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb handed down the sentence in the District of Columbia, according to the Department of Justice. Day, who lives in the unincorporated Prince George's County community of Largo just east of the nation's capital, entered his guilty plea in March, per the agency's announcement. As reported by Daily Voice, Day went by the online aliases “KingDaddy89” and “Mike LeRoy” and told the person he believed was arranging the meeting that he was “very much into taboo” and had “no hard limits.”
The Sting in Chinatown
Day logged onto a fetish website on October 8, 2025, where an online user claimed to have a 9-year-old daughter, according to Daily Voice's reporting on the Department of Justice case. Day allegedly attempted to arrange a sexual encounter, and by October 9, he had arranged to meet the purported child in D.C.'s Chinatown neighborhood the following day. A DC DMV historical document says Chinatown began developing as a residential area for German merchants and craftsmen in the 1820's and 1830's.
On October 10, 2025, Day traveled from Maryland into Washington, D.C., carrying a phone loaded with child sexual abuse material. Rather than finding a child waiting for him, he was arrested in Chinatown by a child-exploitation task force involving FBI special agents and Metropolitan Police Department detectives, according to the Department of Justice. Investigators say Day acknowledged he had no legal justification for possessing the files while traveling into the district.
What Investigators Found on His Phone
Examination of Day's device turned up six videos depicting child sexual abuse, which the same account notes were downloaded during the two days before his arrest, along with two still images that had been downloaded earlier in 2025. Federal law at 18 U.S.C. § 2252A covers transportation of child pornography across state lines, and the Office of the Law Revision Counsel notes that it carries mandatory minimum sentences of 5 to 15 years depending on a defendant's prior record, with maximum penalties reaching 20 to 40 years.
The Department of Justice announced the sentencing. The investigation involved a child-exploitation task force with FBI special agents and Metropolitan Police Department detectives, according to the agency.
How the Sentence Compares Nationally
The prosecution fell under Project Safe Childhood, the nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 to coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement against technology-facilitated child sexual abuse. Day's 108-month sentence sits close to the national average federal prison term for child pornography offenses, which the United States Sentencing Commission pegs at 115 months for fiscal years 2021 through 2025, with 99.5% of convicted defendants receiving prison time. According to the United States Sentencing Commission, 1,432 of the 66,662 cases reported in fiscal year 2025 involved child pornography, and such offenses have increased 18% since fiscal year 2021. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, reports of generative artificial intelligence-related child sexual exploitation soared from 6,835 reports to 440,419.
Sentencing Commission data also shows a sharp split based on conduct: offenders convicted of trafficking or transporting child pornography average sentences of 156 months, compared to 83 months for simple possession offenses, according to the commission's published data. The data show higher average sentences for trafficking or transportation cases than for possession cases.
Life Under Supervision
Beyond his prison term, Day will be required to register as a sex offender. He will also serve 10 years of supervised release.
Day's case was a recent federal child exploitation prosecution in the region.
