A 73-year-old Greenville man is being held without bond after police say he took sexually explicit photos of children between the ages of 10 and 13. Roy Zangrando was arrested by the Greenville Police Department on second-degree sexual exploitation charges, according to court records.
Zangrando faces four counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and two counts of obscene visual representation of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to court records cited by WITN. Per a magistrate's order, he allegedly photographed children ages 10 to 13 in sexually explicit images. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday.
What the Charges Carry Under State Law
Second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor is classified as a Class E felony under North Carolina General Statute § 14-190.17, covering acts such as recording, photographing, filming, or duplicating visual representations of minors engaged in sexual activity, according to the North Carolina General Assembly. A Class E felony conviction in the state carries a standard prison sentence ranging from 15 to 63 months for someone without a prior criminal record, along with potential post-release supervision, per the Sparrow Law Firm.
Any conviction on the charge also mandates registration on the state's Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry under N.C.G.S. § 14-208.6, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The same statute explicitly bars mistake of age as a legal defense, and it permits triers of fact to infer from visual representations whether a subject is a minor.
Where Second-Degree Charges Fit
North Carolina divides sexual exploitation of a minor into three statutory tiers: First-Degree, a Class C felony for production; Second-Degree, a Class E felony for recording or distribution; and Third-Degree, a Class H felony for simple possession, according to Jetton & Meredith PLLC. The tiers distinguish between creating, sharing, or merely possessing explicit materials, with Zangrando's charges falling into the middle tier.
Reports of online child sexual exploitation to law enforcement in North Carolina surged by 1,115 percent between 2019 and 2026, according to state data released by the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation and reported by WRAL. That spike reflects a heavier caseload for both state and local units, including the N.C. SBI's Computer Crimes Unit, which leads the statewide Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force coordinating enforcement among more than 200 state, local, and federal partner agencies, per the SBI.
How These Cases Typically Begin
Federal law requires internet service providers and social media platforms to flag suspected child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline, which forwards targeted leads to local ICAC task forces, according to the SBI. Nationally, 61 regional ICAC task forces conducted nearly 347,000 child exploitation investigations and arrested more than 17,000 individuals in 2025, per the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The Greenville Police Department regularly coordinates child exploitation and digital forensics cases with the Pitt County Sheriff's Office, the N.C. SBI ICAC Unit, and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, according to past federal prosecutions in the district. Zangrando's case is at least the fourth Greenville-area arrest on similar charges that Hoodline has covered since August, following cases involving a Greenville teen and a Greenville man accused in a toddler exploitation case.
