A 24-year-old Las Vegas man has been indicted on a federal charge after investigators say he coerced a 13-year-old living in Hawaii into creating and sending him a sexually explicit video, then threatened to release other explicit footage of her if she refused to comply. Al Justin Carter was indicted Oct. 15 on one count of coercion and enticement of a minor, a day after he was arrested on a criminal complaint stemming from the same allegations.
According to khon2.com, the alleged victim was 13 years old and living in Hawaii when the incident occurred on Dec. 16, 2024. Authorities allege Carter persuaded and coerced the child into creating and sending a sexually explicit video over the internet, and that he threatened to publicly release other explicit videos he allegedly possessed involving her if she did not comply.
KHON2 reported the indictment on Oct. 16. The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, which the U.S. Department of Justice describes as a nationwide initiative that marshals federal, state and local resources to locate, apprehend and prosecute people who exploit children via the internet and to identify and rescue victims.
What Carter Is Accused of Doing
The allegations describe a pattern familiar to investigators who track online sextortion: a predator cultivating contact with a minor, then using the threat of exposure to extract more explicit material. Per the station's report, the FBI investigated the case, which is now being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Nammar.
If convicted, Carter faces up to life in prison, a $250,000 fine and a term of supervised release. Federal authorities emphasized that Carter is presumed innocent unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in court, the same report notes. He is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing on Oct. 20.
A Sharp Rise in Sextortion Reports Nationwide
Cases like Carter's are surfacing against a backdrop of rapidly growing sextortion reports tracked by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. In 2025 alone, NCMEC received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion, which averaged 137 reports per day, according to missingkids.org. That figure is up significantly from more than 36,000 reports received in 2024, the organization said.
NCMEC also found that when the relationship to the victim was known, 94% of public sextortion reports came from the child victim or their parent — a sign that children and families are often the first to take action through public reporting. The group noted that many offenders are moving conversations more quickly to private messaging and encrypted apps, making it harder to detect the crimes and connect related cases.
Other Federal Cases Highlight Pattern of Prosecutions
Carter's case follows a string of similar federal prosecutions across the country. A Danville, Virginia man who sexually exploited minor females using social media, and in some cases threatened to distribute their nude images to their friends, family and churches, was sentenced to 19 years in federal prison to be followed by 20 years, according to the Western District of Virginia U.S. Attorney's Office.
The details of Carter's federal indictment and criminal complaint have not been made public, so the precise allegations contained in those court documents remain unconfirmed beyond what authorities have stated publicly. It is also not yet known how the detention hearing will resolve or what Carter's custody status will be afterward.
