U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani said that a 39-year-old man from Montgomery County was found guilty of sexually exploiting a kid and having child pornography material of the victim.
On September 27, 2023, James Aubrey Zachary Wasson pleaded guilty.
The plea deal meant that Wasson would spend 360 months in prison for sexual abuse and 120 months in prison for production. Those terms will run at the same time, adding up to 30 years in prison.
At the hearing, the mother of the victim told the court how Wasson’s acts gave her child bad dreams. However, the court did say that the sentence was “life-altering for a reason,” which doesn’t mean that the victim’s life will never be the same. Wasson said he abused the child because he was addicted to drugs, but the judge said that drug abuse does not lead to exploitation of children.
Wasson was also told to repay several victims $29,000, and he will be on supervised release for 10 years after his jail sentence is over. During that time, he will have to follow a lot of rules that are meant to keep him from kids and the internet. Wasson will also have to sign up as a sex offender.
Hamdani said, “Wasson broke a little girl’s life.” “Today’s sentence cannot give her back the life she should have had, but it does ensure Wasson cannot hurt other children for a very long time.”
The police were able to identify Wasson after finding more than 500 child pornographic files he had posted between March 2019 and March 2021. There were 51 photos in one folder. They were all taken on the same day in December 2020. A few of them showed him sexually aroused next to a young girl. He also looked like he was touching her under her clothes.
After that, Wasson’s cell phone was searched and found to be the one he used to take the series of sexually explicit photos. Other child pornography files taken between May 2020 and May 2021 were also on the cell phone.
The child victim also knew who Wasson was and remembered when he took the pictures. Wasson will stay in jail until he is moved to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons location, which will be decided soon.