The final four members of a sexploitation gang that lured young girls into performing explicit acts in video chat rooms have been sentenced to over 100 years behind bars.
Justin Fuller, 37, of Modesto, California, was sentenced to 35 years; Virgil Napier, 54, of Waterford, Michigan, was given 20 years; John Garrison, 52, of Glenarm, Illinois, was sentenced to 35 years; and Thomas Dougherty, 54, of Vallejo, California, was handed down 26 years.
They join Dantly Nicart, 39, of Las Vegas, who got 20 years imprisonment, and Brandon Henneberg, 31, of Diller, Nebraska, who was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment last September; bringing the grand total for the gang to 171 years behind bars.
Fuller’s was the most recent trial, with a jury in April finding him guilty of one count of engaging in a child exploitation enterprise; one count of conspiracy to produce child pornography, five counts of production of child pornography, one count of conspiracy to receive child pornography, one count of conspiracy to access with intent to view child pornography and five counts of enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
The gang were located across the US but worked together online to lure young girls to password-protected video chat rooms.
A US Department of Justice notice had the following:
“The group was active for approximately two years and communicated with each other through ‘base’ chatrooms that were password-protected. In the base chat rooms, Fuller and co-conspirators strategized how to convince minor females to produce child pornography, including pretending to be teenage boys or girls to help convince the minor females to engage in sexual activity.”
The breakthrough apparently came when one of the gang was arrested on suspicion of possessing child pornography back in 2015.
On questioning by the police he revealed the chat rooms being used by the group. All the cops had to do next was subpoena their ISPs to release details of their IP addresses and the game was up.