A 49-year-old Washington County man is headed to federal prison after investigators found roughly 20 digitally altered nude photos of children, some as young as 12, stored on his cellphone. Jared Marsh of Santa Clara, Utah was sentenced to five years behind bars followed by lifetime supervised release, capping a case that began when a local victim reported he was holding sexually explicit images of her without her consent.
The case first surfaced in November 2024 after that lewdness report prompted local police to act, and a federal investigation followed, according to KSL. Marsh was booked into Purgatory Correctional Facility in Washington County; KSL also reported the launch of a federal investigation. In May, Marsh pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, as reported by ABC4 Utah.
Federal court filings show Marsh held the sexually explicit, digitally altered photos on his phone between June 8, 2024, and November 21, 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. That timeframe began shortly after Marsh completed probation stemming from a state misdemeanor voyeurism conviction, per the same filings. Police who reviewed the phone found the images had reportedly been digitally altered to make the children, between 12 and 17 years old, appear completely nude, ABC4 Utah's report notes.
Search Widened to Additional Devices
After the initial phone search, investigators executed a second warrant at Marsh's residence in St. George and turned up additional electronic devices containing more AI-generated nude images of juveniles, KSL reported. The expanded search underscored how far the material had spread across Marsh's personal devices beyond the original phone seized under a warrant from the Utah district attorney's office.
U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak said digitally altering a child's image through technology is illegal and will be met with severe consequences, according to ABC4 Utah's report. She added that she has zero tolerance for this conduct and will work with law enforcement partners to investigate and prosecute offenders to the fullest extent of the law. Santa Clara-Ivins Police Chief Jaron Studley said the department will focus on protecting victims, holding offenders accountable, and keeping children and communities safe as technology evolves, and said his department is proud of the investigative work that brought the case forward, the outlet's report states.
Expanding Federal Court Presence in Southern Utah
Marsh's sentencing was handled in Washington County under an expanding federal judicial footprint in the region. Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen, confirmed to the federal bench in April 2024, is the first U.S. District Court judge assigned primarily to handle cases out of St. George in Utah's Southern Region, according to the Utah State Bar. The Utah State Bar describes an expanding St. George presence and a significant Southern Region caseload contribution.
Federal law addresses possession of child sexual abuse material. Marsh's 60-month sentence was paired with lifetime supervised release. Utah law separately classifies possession of child sexual abuse material as a second-degree felony, according to the Utah Legislature.
Part of a Broader National Surge
Marsh's case fits into a rapidly worsening national pattern. Reports of generative AI child sexual abuse material submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline jumped from 4,700 in 2023 to 67,000 in 2024, then surpassed 400,000 in 2025, according to the United States Secret Service, which described an 8,400% surge in generative AI tipline reports over that two-year span. NCMEC's materials also address generative AI abuse material, per MissingKids.org.
The case also involved Utah law enforcement and a federal investigation. The article also links to a separate Hoodline report.
Lifetime Registration Requirements
Marsh's lifetime supervised release extends the case's consequences beyond his five-year prison term.
