The United States Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Arkansas announced in a release Wednesday afternoon that Charles Coulter, 37, was sentenced to 30 years, the statutory maximum for production of child pornography.
Coulter was indicted on Jan. 4, 2011 on one count of the charge and one count of possession of child pornography. He plead guilty to one count of production of child pornography on Feb. 29.
An investigation into Coulter began June 17, 2010 after a neighbor complained about suspicious behavior between Coulter and a minor, including a text message that was said to be inappropriate. That, along with another witness' testimony that they had seen "nasty" photographs of a minor on Coulter's computer, lead to the arrest.
Coulter gave officers permission to search his computer and was arrested without incident. A sexually explicit photo of a minor was also located in Coulter's bedroom. Coulter later admitted in an interview with authorities that he had taken more than 100 nude photographs of a minor and admitted to having recent sexual contact with a minor from Oct. 2009 to April 2010.
Coulter was prosecuted federally, pursuant to Project Safe Childhood, a 2006 initiative aimed at combating sexual exploitation of minors.